Lactnetters,
I heard this mentioned on Primetime & looked the article up. My one
track mind went straight to breastfeeding.
" No one under 24 years of age died." Where did their protection have
come from? Could it be they were exclusively BF as children? Could an
uncompromised immune system be the answer? I'd like to hear your
thoughts!
Regards,
P.Harris-Swenson, MA, IBCLC,
Nutritionist & BF Coordinator
Still behind '69 spring cleaning & E- mail!
Lowell, MA USA
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copied from ABC.com 'Primetime' with Diane Sawyer.
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Anthrax Let Loose in 1979
What We've Learned From Soviet Union Accident
Oct. 19 — If a huge plume of anthrax were let loose on a large
population, what would happen? Who would survive?
Though many Americans are learning about anthrax for the first time, the
Russian city of Sverdlovsk in the Ural mountains learned about the deadly
bacteria through a ghastly incident in 1979.
"It is the largest recorded outbreak of inhalation anthrax in human
history," said Jeanne Guillemin, a sociology professor who wrote the
definitive book on the Sverdlovsk incident.
'Compound 19'
The Soviet Union was secretly manufacturing biological weapons in a place
called "Compound 19," while lying about it to the world.
Apparently one night someone forgot to turn on the filtration system and
a small amount of anthrax, about a third of an ounce, went up in a gust
and floated out in the wind.
As the wind picked it up, it sailed like a deadly arrow across the city.
And as the particles drifted on, they infected sheep and cattle as far as
30 miles away.
"When they tested this strain, it appeared to be one of the most
virulent, most potent strains ever seen in Russia," said Ken Alibek, who
was director of the Soviet bio-weapons program before he defected to the
United States.
The anthrax strain that was released, he said, was not
antibiotic-resistant, but the spores were mobilized in the deadliest
possible way, exactly the size to be inhaled.
"Spores which were released were weaponized," explains Alibek.
Autopsies Reveal Anthrax
The Soviet Union was silent about the human biological battlefield, where
people seemed to be dying of flu, pneumonia and internal bleeding. In the
end, two-thirds of the people who would die lived a mile to 3 miles away.
Many doctors were afraid to examine the bodies for fear of contagion. But
Dr. Faina Abramova, a pathologist, came out of retirement and began
conducting autopsies.
While Soviet authorities were blaming tainted meat for the epidemic, she
diagnosed anthrax.
"When we finished examining the bodies, we realized it was not what they
were saying it was," said Lev Grinberg, then a medical student assisting
Abramova.
Antiobiotics were sent out, but it was too late for many residents of the
working-class neighborhood.
Spores Can Be Dormant
Thirteen years after the outbreak, and after the breakup of the Soviet
Union, Matthew Meselson, a professor of molecular and cellular biology at
Harvard, got permission to investigate. His team was surprised by the
pattern of illness. The anthrax spores had been released from a vent on
April 2, 1979. Two days later, the first two illnesses appeared. In the
two weeks following, 40 more people got sick. Six more cases appeared in
the third week. But amazingly, another dozen would not fall sick until
more than three weeks after they were exposed. One person came down with
anthrax 43 days after the spores were released.
Meselson discovered in monkey experiments that sometimes a few anthrax
spores remain dormant in the lungs, in effect hidden until the body's
immune system finds them.
He also found that, even though an estimated 5,000 people were exposed to
anthrax in Sverdlovsk, fewer than 70 died. Most of the people who were
exposed didn't even come down with anthrax or any other disease.
"Our lungs have a defense mechanism," explains Meselson. "You're inhaling
millions of particles every day … And now it's kind of a war who wins."
To win, says Meselson, it helps to be young: No one under 24 came down
with anthrax.
"Older people tend to be slightly more vulnerable than people who are
young and robust," he says.
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