RE: Anthrax question

["Dukelow, James S Jr" <jim.dukelow@PNL.GOV>]

Maury and the CDC wrote:

-----Original Message-----

From: maury [mailto:maury@WEBTEXAS.COM]

Sent: Monday, October 29, 2001 9:43 AM

To: Jacobus, John (OD/ORS)

Cc: The Wilsons; Marco Caceci; Radiation Safety; Chuck Cooper

Subject: Re: Anthrax question





The CDC report you provided was a great chunk of good information. I do wish,

however, that more government officials would make more of a point of the

editorial changes I've indicated in brackets below. Yelling is not intended with

the caps - just a substitute for italics or bolded text.



I really got a kick out of the relevant rejoinder in Chuck Cooper's remarks as

follows:



"I asked the head of our biology department about the presence of Anthrax

spores in downtown Portland soil, he said sure, how hard do you really want

to look?"



> ------------------  snipped  --------------------

> The following is from the MMWR of August 17, 2001, which can be found at.

>

> http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5032a1.htm

> . . .

>

> Editorial Note:

> This report presents the first [KNOWN] case of cutaneous anthrax in the United

>

> States since 1992. In the United States, the annual [REPORTED] incidence of

> human

> anthrax declined from approximately 200 cases in the early 1900s to no human

> cases since 1992. Although most cases reported [how 'bout this?  The CDC

> writer used the crucial word here!]  in the United States have

> been cutaneous, 18 cases of inhalational anthrax were reported during the

> 20th century, most recently in 1976 (1). No cases of gastrointestinal

> anthrax have been reported in the United States.

> -- John

> John Jacobus, MS



--------------------------  snipped  -------------------

Jim Dukelow adds:



The CDC link provided in the John Jacobus email and the material quoted in the

Editorial Note are to/from the August 17, 2001 issue of the CDC's Mortality and

Morbidity Weekly Report.



Interestingly, the September 15, 2000 MMWR (roughly a year earlier) includes a

report, Human Ingestion of Anthracis-Contaminated Meat -- Minnesota, August

2000, <www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm4936a1.htm>, describing

gastrointestinal illness in two members of a Minnesota farm family, apparently

resulting from eating meat from one of their cows that had fallen ill and died.

A veterinarian had clear the meat for consumption.  Five or six members of the

family ate the meat, two becoming ill two to three days later.  Both recovered

without treatment.



Bacillus anthracis contamination of the carcass was confirmed by the Minnesota

Department of Health Public Health Laboratory and by US Army Medical Research

Institute for Infectious Diseases.  Members of the farm family were put on

prophylactic antibiotic treatment.



The cow had been slaughtered at a local packing house.  Meat from the cow and

from the seven cow slaughtered in the same facility after that cow was recalled,

with some of it recovered and incinerated.



It appears that CDC's left hand (MMWR August 17, 2000) doesn't know what its

right hand (MMWR September 15, 2000) is doing.



Best regards.



Jim Dukelow

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Richland, WA

jim.dukelow@pnl.gov



These comments are mine and have not been reviewed and/or approved by my

management or by the U.S. Department of Energy.

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