Word: bacterium
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...nation's anthrax outbreak was going to be limited to South Florida--indeed, to just a single building. The hot zone, the headquarters of tabloid publisher American Media Inc. in Boca Raton, had already been sealed off, and its employees and their families were undergoing tests for the dread bacterium. By midweek, one death and two exposures had been reported, but they appeared to be the only casualties. Despite false alarms in Ohio, upstate New York and Hawaii, it looked as though the worst was over...
Anthrax is a disease caused by the rod-shaped bacterium Bacillus anthracis. When not actively infecting sheep or moose or people, the bug forms hard-shelled spores and goes into a kind of hibernation. These spores are hardy little things, resistant to sunlight, heat and disinfectant. They have been known to survive in soil for 80 years...
...contract anthrax by inhaling a lot of spores (at least 8,000 to 10,000), by eating contaminated meat or by coming into contact with the bacterium through an open wound. The same bug causes all three forms of the disease, but anthrax caused by inhaling is by far the most dangerous...
Although anthrax is the newest weapon Americans’ fear, the bacterium and the disease it causes are of ancient origin...
...bacterium that causes the disease, bacillus anthracis, is found naturally in soil throughout the country. Most cases of anthrax until this month have been caused by exposure to parts of infected animals...