Word: bacteria
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...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...
...disappearance of a truck loaded with chemicals helped confirm fears among many investigators that the next wave of terror could come not from deadly germs but from a simple truck carrying explosives or some other kind of deadly goo. Why fiddle with bacteria when you can simply drive a tanker full of gasoline into a building...
...upon to simultaneously investigate the four hijackings and track down leads that could fend off any future attack. That was enough to stretch the bureau to its limits. But then came anthrax and the new responsibility of finding out who sent the contaminated letters and where they got the bacteria. New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani was furious at the FBI field office last week because it did not inform him for nearly a week after it learned about a suspicious letter received by NBC News. And agents who arrested two men, Ayub Ali Khan and Mohamed Azmath, in connection with...
PLAYING CHICKEN The routine use of antibiotics in livestock may create healthier--even fatter--animals, but it may take its toll on humans. New research shows that the same antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria found in meat and poultry are turning up in our intestines. As a consequence, food-borne illnesses, from eating undercooked meats or drinking water contaminated by animal droppings, may become more difficult to treat...
Then there is the possibility of irradiating mail, in much the same way bacteria is irradiated from meat. That too may be prohibitively expensive and companies in the irradiating business say it would be some time before such technology would be viable for the post office or company mail rooms. Most biotech firms are reluctant to invest in what they believe to be a temporary, panic-induced market. It seems common sense may be the best--and cheapest--defense...