No coughing on Gel or his muffins! Besides, it's non-communicable between humans.
It's probably nothing to worry about. Any white powder would be reported and handled this way even if it turns out to be make-up, talcum powder, or a cleanser, any of which are white powders commonly found spilled on the floor of a women's bathroom. They are treating the situation this way so they can avoid further possible infections and so they can easily identify anyone who should be treated while preemptive treatment is called for. They have been doing a couple hundred of these every day for over a week and they have confirmed only a tiny percentage of these cases, all of which involved infection through the mail. If I were Erin, I would probably be freaking, and this is what my best friend would tell me to make me calm down. If, worst case scenario, it really is an anthrax infected white powder, which is extremely unlikely, it is being handled correctly and any infection will be eliminated as quickly as possible. If you are immunocompromised AND it turns out to be anthrax AND you were exposed, then worry. Otherwise, you will be just fine. Early detection is the key and this is how you do early detection. And to answer Jacob's question, there was a movement (probably in the last century) to eliminate anthrax from the world. This is one of the few diseases for this this was supposedly achieved, but some samples were saved for scientific and military research. Therefore, there are no more animals that have the disease. The fear has been that it would be re-introduced into the population and we wouldn't be prepared for it, so we were actually more prepared for this than the government people think. We may not have been prepared enough, but we did expect this and solutions were already in the works. As for the use of Cipro, I can imagine that there are a couple of reasons to choose Cipro over other drugs. Most importantly, not *all* strains of anthrax are susceptible to the other drugs and it is new and expensive enough that harvesting a cipro-immune version would be infeasible. It is important to remember that more than one strain of anthrax may be released. *This* strain can be treated with those other anti-biotics, but we are not guaranteed that there will be only one strain. Unfortunately, the tests to detect anthrax do not detect the strain-- this takes longer than a patient could survive on the wrong anti-biotic. In the case of anthrax, early detection is very important to treatment and you don't have time to try someone on different anti-biotics. Cipro is rarely prescribed by doctors, but I have taken it before. My allergies are bad enough in Louisiana that I am considered immunocompromised while I live there. One time that I got sick, I was sick for three weeks, through two courses of anti-biotics. Then I was put on cipro. Within 24 hours my symptoms were gone. If I somehow managed to get infected with anthrax, I would definitely want a drug like that on my side. But part of the reason that it is so effective is that it is so rarely used. Overuse now could kill that effect. Flu season is starting and mold allergy season is in full effect. A sinus infection does not equal anthrax and sinus infections should be running high right now. What is curious to me is the discussion of the number of pills the government has. I keep hearing figures like "We can treat 4 million people for 60 days but that's not enough people!" Why would we treat that many people for 60 days? 10 days? OK. I can understand that. 60 days? 4 million people for 60 days? Are we expecting continuous inhalation-anthrax crop-dusting sprays over major cities? That's the part that confuses me. At 01:56 PM 10/26/01 -0400, you wrote: >I can hear you! > >I'm coming down to Trinidad this weekend and breathe and cough all over you. >Ha! > >***Big grin!!!*** > >Just kidding -- although I've always said that if I do die of some horrible, >unnatural causes I'm not going alone.... > >Kidding again...sort of. No really, I can't possible leave my cats to be >orphans. Who would give Doran his insulin? Who would clean up their little >"presents" they hack up? I definitely can't go yet. > >; ) > >Erin > >-----Original Message----- >From: Angel Stewart [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] >Sent: Friday, October 26, 2001 12:27 PM >To: CF-Community >Subject: RE: Anthrax scare (Was beauuuuutiful Friday) > > >*thwapples William* > >*looks at Erin* >*whispers to William* > >Shhhhhhh....you don't know if Erin inhaled anything! We don't want to >cause a panic. >No one needs to know that if you get inhaled anthrax you're almost >definitely going to die in a few days, and weapons grade anthrax with >extremely fine spores has started showing up. > >0_0 > >*turns and gives Erin a reassuring smile* > >8) > >-Gel > > > >-----Original Message----- >From: William J Wheatley [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > >it is readily treated unLESS you come down with inhaled anthrax before >they put you on antibiotics. As with the 2 postal workers who came down >with the inhaled variety it was too late to treat them but as long as >they know now and take precautions if you have tested postive for spores >then you should be fine. > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Get the mailserver that powers this list at http://www.coolfusion.com Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
