<BLOCKQUOTE class=“ip-ubbcode-quote”><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> BREAKING NEWS from CNN.com
– An NBC employee in New York has tested positive for anthrax. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
http://www.cnn.com/2001/HEALTH/conditions/10/12/nyc.anthrax/index.html
<BLOCKQUOTE class=“ip-ubbcode-quote”><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>
NBC employee tests positive for skin anthrax
October 12, 2001 Posted: 12:22 PM EDT (1622 GMT)
NEW YORK (CNN) – NBC officials confirmed Friday that an employee at NBC in Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan has tested positive for a skin anthrax infection.
The employee is in good condition and expected to recover, according to NBC executives.
“Today we learned that one of our employees at 30 Rockefeller Center has tested positive for the cutaneous (skin) anthrax infection,” according to a note to NBC employees from NBC chairman Bob Wright and NBC president Andy Lack.
“It is important to note that this is not the same respiratory anthrax that has been reported in the news. Obviously, we are concerned for the employee’s well-being. She has received treatment and is responding well. She is in no danger, and she should recover fully and completely. The Department of Health is coordinating her ongoing care.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , the FBI, and the New York City Department of Health are investigating.
Cutaneous anthrax is not as serious as inhalation anthrax.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Hasn’t been a reported case of Anthrax since the 70’s.
If the lab doesn’t meet FDA standards, that means there’s a risk of a substandard vaccine being produced.
Cipro is a quinolone antibiotic, not a cephalosporin. It’s considered one of the “big guns” of the antibiotic world, that is, something the medical profession would prefer was kept in reserve for very serious infections, and not used routinely. The rationale for this is that overuse will allow resistant strains of bacteria to evolve.
Enrofloxacin, a similar drug, is approved for use in dogs, cattle, poultry IIRC, and is used in horses as well, although not approved.
Okay, so perhaps I’m the only one on this BB who lies awake at night, worrying about overzealous use of powerful antibiotics, but the notion that people will be popping cipro for every cold or cut makes me nervous.
to hear what’s going out over the “scanners” and just in Montco, PA right now there are three suspected packages with white powder in them at various locations, one is at a bank…There are alot of wacko’s in this world to be using this even as a “scare” tactict. 
We’re in total mail lockdown here. We’ve been ordered to return any unopened packages and to not touch any mail. It’s a weird scene … all our mail is now piled up in boxes out behind the pressrooms and security officers in hazmat suits are going through it…
The New York Times person who got the “suspicious package” is reportedly one of the paper’s Middle East experts.
There is an enormous run on Cipro out here. I have a colleague who has become postively rabid in her efforts to get a prescription (lots of folks are going over the border to Tijuana to get it). There are many employees who think our paper should already be testing all of us. (As far the anthrax vaccine goes, it wouldn’t really do any good: It’s a series of injections over 18 months.)
Me? Call me an eternal optimist/fatalist, but if my number comes up, it comes up; that truck across the street is just as likely to squash me as anything else. Frankly, the hellish Santa Ana winds are kicking up and I am far, far more worried about some fire-fascinated wacko with a book of matches thinking that now would be a fine time to start setting things ablaze. My ominious feeling about THAT threat is overriding all others; I have nightmares of barns going up in flames, my dogs being trapped …
Look. This is a horribly, terribly stressful time for all of us. There is no shame in admitting that. But it simply cannot rule our lives. Yes, take precautions. Yes, get a prescription if it makes you feel better. Store water and keep your car filled with gas (heck, those of us in earthquake country do that as a matter of course).
But please don’t imagine horrors and don’t spread tales. And for God’s sake, please do NOT stop doing the little ordinary things you do every day … because those are what makes this journey of life worthwhile.
Hang in, everyone. Cyber hugs all around. 
Bulletin Board Goddess
First, if this is really a terror attack it hasn’t been all that effective.
Second, before you go self-medicating with antibiotics, be aware that they are not without risk. In addition to the risk of creating resistant bacteria, there is also the very real risk of severe diarrhea/colitis. I know someone who was hospitalized for several days and debilitated for months because her doctor gave her antibiotics “just in case” (not for anthrax!).
One terrorism expert, when asked what people can do to minimize their risk, replied, “Fasten your seat belt and stop smoking.” Remember that the everyday things we do are far more likely to kill us.
Just shut down capitol hill until tuesday. all senate and house offices closed til then. 
damn them. it’s so upseting to me that they have to now shut down our goverment because of this.
Unbelievable. Makes me want to go home and pull the covers over my head.
It is absolutely terrifying to hear that they are planning more violence over the next few days.
Behind every good woman lies a trail of men
<BLOCKQUOTE class=“ip-ubbcode-quote”><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by vineyridge:
Take heart from the fact that the anthrax has been sent to media outlets to maximize coverage.
I would bet that they have a limited supply of the bugs and are using them for psychological warfare instead of actually starting epidemics.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Maybe, but if it is terrorists they seem to have a knack for combining media sensationalism with devestation. No one will ever forget watching the story of the first World Trade Center being hit only to see a plane come out fo nowhere to hit the second. Although there were only four planes involved in the first attack, my guess is that there were many more that were planned. We really don’t know whether all this is just a test run for an even bigger war on the US. I don’t think we have seen anything yet unfortunately.
Behind every good woman lies a trail of men
guess that explains the widespread panic. My question is, if it is just the usual USA nutjobs, why haven’t they been doing it since the 70’s? Makes me lean even more towards the terrorist explanation
Stay safe Jennasis and Serendipity.
Behind every good woman lies a trail of men
In Senator Graham’s office (chairmen of senate intelligence) there was a big scare this morning because a suspicious package from Egypt was delivered. It turned out to be nothing, of course, but it led all of us in my office to think, WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THE SENATE MAILROOM WORKERS??? They have strict rules regarding suspicious packages. We all just pictured one of the senate mail guys rolling his cart down the halls of the Hart Senate Office Building, dropping the mail off at all of the other offices, WITH AN ANONYMOUS PACKAGE FROM EGYPT INSIDE THE BIN! Duh!
And FYI, even the smaller senate offices get two-three bins of mail every morning and afternoon.
I would NOT want to be working in the White House mail room or correspondence office right now.
SLW, I don’t know why it’s common in certain animals, but there has been an outbreak of anthrax in deer and cattle in Texas this summer.
<BLOCKQUOTE class=“ip-ubbcode-quote”><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>
While most of the attention paid to this deadly bacteria in recent years has focused on its use in biological warfare, livestock fatality from anthrax is a common problem in many areas of the world, including southern and eastern Europe, the Middle East, South and Central America, several republics of the former Soviet Union, and parts of Africa, Asia, and China, according to a fact sheet published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture�s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
“Anthrax is caused by Bacillus anthracis, a spore-forming bacteria. The disease often occurs after we have periods of wet, cool weather followed by several weeks of hot and dry conditions,” said Dr. Dan Baca, a veterinary epidemiologist with the Texas Animal Health Commission, the state livestock healthy regulatory agency, in a statement from the organization. “When livestock graze in an affected pasture, they can ingest the spores that are on the grass or ground. Historically, most of Texas cases each year occur in a triangle bounded by Uvalde, Ozona, and Eagle Pass.”
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Here are some links that have some more general information about anthrax:
Anthrax Invades Texas (June '01 outbreak in deer and cattle)
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) general info about anthrax
I hope you stay safe and don’t get hurt by the fires. That must be very scary when they kick up. I have never seen a forest fire, but have seen some after effects and it is pretty brutal.
Do you have a good evacuation plan for your animlas should the time come?
The witchy witch witch of south central NC.
…no connection to 9/11.
Go about your normal lives. Go to the mall, buy a car, go flying, etc.
Exactly what I was thinking of doing, Miniwelsh…
'Cept I’ll bet these aren’t the WTC terrorists. Probably the home-grown, local nut case variety.
What about this “Cipro” drug? Does anyone know about it? What are the side effects/dangers? 
I THINK I heard that, until this recent situation, there had been something like 18 confirmed cases in the 20th century (NOT 20 years as I originally wrote. Need to get my ears cdhecked!).
Of course, that is people who actually got sick (and were tested for it), not just people found to have been exposed. I don’t think anybody knows how many cases were neveer tested for, and were assumed to be something else.
Even so, 2 confirmed cases in 2 weeks is, at the very least, a statistical anomoly.
[This message was edited by Janet on Oct. 12, 2001 at 02:00 PM.]
One of my bosses know all about this stuff because he worked on biological weapons issues at the Pentagon…
It will be several years, he says, before vaccines will be available to the public. The vaccine is so rare, in fact, that the motto at the embassies is “evacuate before inoculate.” it’s hard to believe and quite depressing. we would beasically just be totally screwed if there was an outbreak.
he also said there are only two or three vaccines, and several more threads of anthrax.
the good news is that is it NOT contagious. you can only get it if you come in direct contact with the substance. and the other good news is that is tremendoulsy difficult and expensive to keep and handle. it is a bacteria that need perfect conditions to survive, and those conditions are hard to keep, as I understand.
serendiptity… . I am so sorry you have to bear witness to this all in the way that you do. At least we here in DC (and esp. those of us around goverment buildings and politicians all the time) are just living the lives of the super paranoid… we don’t have to deal with being touched so regularly by what happened 9.11.
