Deadly shipments

It has a sounding name, but it is not a product of marketing, nor is it a brand of any foreign soda, cigarette, clothing or car. With its effect, but also with its miniature size, it surpasses all these products of modern society. Namely - anthrax is deadly!

Anthrax is a disease, usually fatal, caused by bacteria bacillus anthrax. The spores produced by this bacterium are silent, very resistant, odorless, invisible, which makes them an exceptional biological weapon.

It came into the focus of the world's attention these days after the death of Robert Stevens, the photo editor of the newspaper "The Sun" from Florida. It is assumed that the bacterium arrived at the American Media company, which publishes this newspaper, through a letter. On Friday, after three cases infected with anthrax in this company, the disease also appears in New York: an NBC reporter was recorded as the fourth person infected with the bacteria, and there is also a suspicious letter. Soon, five more patients were reported in Florida, and then a policeman and two laboratory technicians from New York.

Two days ago, the disease also affected a third media house - ABC. The son of an employee of this TV network, a seven-month-old baby, who was recently on the television premises in New York, fell ill with the mildest, cutaneous anthrax.

Everything indicates that the disease is, for now, only in media circles.

EXPANSION PANIC: As the anthrax bacterium is a tool that can be successfully used in biological warfare, panic is spreading with the increase in the number of infected people in America. The fear that it could also be used by terrorists in retaliation after the start of the bombing of Afghanistan has grown sharply.

In some parts of the world, this bacterium can be found in cattle or other ungulates. It is not common in Western Europe and America. Rather, it can be found in South and Central America, Southeast Europe, Asia and Africa.

"The big danger is that the bacillus is very resistant in the external environment," says the director of the Institute for Infectious and Tropical Diseases, Dr. Miomir Pelemiš, a specialist in infectious diseases and clinical pharmacology. "It can live for years on land, on the surface, and then animals like cattle, horses..."

A person can become infected in three ways: by inhalation, by consuming infected meat or by infecting injured skin by direct contact with an infected animal. When it comes to food infection, Dr. Pelemiš points out the danger of dried or smoked and insufficiently thermally processed meat, since the bacillus can survive temperatures of 100 degrees. However, an infected patient cannot transmit the disease to other people.

Since 1990, only four cases have been reported in Great Britain, while in America the current pulmonary form of anthrax is the first recorded case since 1978. "Three cases of anthrax were recorded in the territory of Yugoslavia in 1998, but not with a fatal outcome," says Dr. Pelemiš. He further explains that this disease does not exist in our country because of good prevention, that is, vaccination of animals. "Currently, there is no danger of anthrax in our country under normal conditions."

SYMPTOMS: What makes anthrax dangerous is that the symptoms are often indistinguishable from other, less serious infections. Aggravating circumstance is that there are three types of anthrax depending on how the patient is infected.

Dr. Miomir Pelemiš says that skin anthrax is very easy to recognize, unlike pulmonary and intestinal anthrax. "The disease is manifested by changes on the skin in the form of redness, swelling that quickly turns black, a scab appears, and small whitish bubbles surround it. Pulmonary anthrax is manifested by cough, fever and malaise, that is, the disease is similar to the flu, so it is difficult to recognize. Abdominal pain and diarrhea with blood are characteristic for the intestinal form. With pulmonary and intestinal forms, inflammation of the meninges and sepsis can also develop, and then these are fatal diseases in 80 percent of cases, if they are not detected in time and timely treatment is not started."

BIOLOGICALLY WEAPON: Anthrax could be included in the most dangerous biological weapon, but knowledge about its potential is incomplete. Cultivating large quantities of anthrax spores is complicated and difficult, but not impossible for many countries. During 1990, at least 17 countries were thought to have biological weapons. Experts, however, claim that growing this bacterium is beyond the capabilities of individuals and small groups, as it requires access to sophisticated biotechnology, as well as the original source of anthrax. But former Soviet scientist and biological weapons expert Dr. Kenneth Alibek claims that if you have a basic knowledge of microbiology and biotechnology, it's not that hard to make one.

Once made, anthrax spores can be stored for a period of time. The spores achieve the greatest effect if they are in the form of an aerosol, so they can spread through the air, covering large areas and a large number of people who inhale it, thus causing the most terrible pulmonary anthrax. The only problem is to provide a suitable distribution system for this use. The agricultural spraying planes eyed by the terrorists, experts say, are not a very suitable tool for such a task.

MORTALITY: Nine out of ten patients die when anthrax spores reach the lungs and cause infection. Taking antibiotics at an earlier stage will prevent death in only one in ten cases. Mortality from anthrax obviously depends on the amount of spores and the efficiency of the distribution system. As the disease is not transmissible from person to person, only those who have been directly exposed to the spores can become ill.

The World Health Organization has determined that the release of 100 kilograms of spores over Washington could cause the death of between 130.000 and three million people. However, producing this much anthrax is a significant, difficult undertaking.

PROTECTION: There are three equally problematic ways to protect against anthrax: Gas mask, antibiotics and vaccine.

The effectiveness of the gas mask lies in its perfect adherence to the face, which is very difficult to achieve. Organisms can penetrate even the smallest hole. The unreliability of this type of protection is also in the fact that there is no warning for this type of attack or any indication that the process is taking place, so the gas mask should be worn 24 hours a day.

"Treatment with antibiotics is simple," says Dr. Pelemish. "The first choice antibiotic is crystalline penicillin, but if a person is allergic to penicillin, another drug is prescribed," he explains. It is ciprofloxacin ie. cipro, a drug from Bayer, where they say demand for this antibiotic has skyrocketed. However, the success of the treatment is related to timely detection of the disease, which is often not the case. This type of protection is problematic because no one knows when they are exposed to a dangerous bacteria, so antibiotics should be taken continuously as long as there is a threat of a bioterrorist attack.

The safest preventive measure is a vaccine, which, as confirmed to us at the Torlak Institute of Immunology and Virology, is not produced in our country. Only the American company BioPort has a license for this vaccine, the effectiveness of which has been proven in the laboratory, but it is not ready for mass use. Such an undertaking, in addition to a large sum of money, will also require some time. Until then, its use is limited to the US government and military.

For the time being, the only protection for Americans is the caution advised by the FBI in case they receive a suspicious package: "Handle it carefully, do not shake it or hit it; pick it apart and look for a clue; do not open it, do not smell it and do not taste it; treat the package as suspicious and call the police."

Dr. Pelemiš advises the citizens of Serbia to pay attention only to whether they have been in contact with an infected animal, because in our country there are currently no other ways for humans to become infected.

In the wake of the new New York anthrax case, many American media outlets have stopped receiving mail. If the economy, reliability and speed of e-mail did not persuade you, and viruses, which are dangerous only for your computer, responded to the use of e-mail, after the news about the deadly bacteria it will be easier for you. Anthrax, at least for now, can only be sent to you by "good old letter".

Three types of anthrax

CUTANEOUS ANTHRAX: The mildest form that produces sometimes painful skin lesions. Fatal in 20 in XNUMX cases.

INTESTINAL ANTHRAX: Caused by ingestion of infected meat that causes symptoms of severe food poisoning. Mortality is up to 50 percent.

PULMONARY ANTHRAX: The most severe form is caused by inhalation of spores that reach the lungs. The initial symptoms are similar to the common flu, which 2-6 days later turn into shocks. The outcome is usually fatal.