Word: anthrax
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...WHAT ABOUT A VACCINE? Only one anthrax vaccine exists, made by one company, BioPort, for only one client: the U.S. military. But BioPort stopped producing the vaccine in 1998, when the FDA cited the company for lapses in quality control at its Lansing, Mich., plant. BioPort reapplied for approval last Monday, but in the interim, both the military and NIH have been pushing two newer vaccines into clinical trials, in hope of finding a vaccine with fewer side effects. Public health officials still see no need to inoculate the general public...
Identifying It How we diagnose anthrax and track its source
...ANTHRAX? Several different lab tests can detect the presence of anthrax, but no single screen can give a definitive diagnosis. Culturing a sample (from the nose, for instance) and growing the bacteria is the most conclusive way to confirm anthrax, but this can take several days. Using antibodies that stick to bacterial proteins found in the blood is another less time-consuming...
...WHERE DOES IT COME FROM? By looking at specific sections of the anthrax DNA, scientists can determine its strain and whether it has been genetically manipulated. Every sample from the recent cases tested so far comes from the same strain. It has not yet been matched with any of the known types of anthrax collected from naturally occurring outbreaks in animals...
...anxious as the country is over anthrax, the isolated outbreaks are only a lukewarm version of what a true infectious-disease hot zone would look like. Because anthrax is rarely contagious, the exposures to the bacteria have been well contained. But with other agents, that may not be so easy. Smallpox in particular has public health officials concerned. Since 1980, when the World Health Organization declared that the disease had been eradicated, the world's population has not been vaccinated. The U.S. ended routine immunizations in 1971, and even for those who got the shots as children, the vaccine...