Tuesday October 9, 09:56 PM

Doctors race to study bioagents

By Andrea Shalal-Esa

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A false alarm involving a third possible case of anthrax in suburban Virginia has highlighted the urgency with which U.S. doctors and public health officials are racing to learn to identify the use of biological warfare agents.

One Florida man died of anthrax on Friday -- and a co-worker has tested positive for the disease -- prompting the Palm Beach County Health Department to test more than 800 people for traces of the bacterium that causes anthrax.

Evidence of the rare disease in Florida heightened fears of biological warfare after the Sept. 11 hijack attacks on New York and Washington that killed more than 5,500 people.

U.S. officials blamed those attacks on Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network and are bracing for possible follow-on attacks that could involve chemical or biological weapons.

"We've been alerted by the state health department to have a high level of vigilance about these possible bioterrorist diseases," said Dr. Thomas Ryan, head of emergency medicine at the Manassas, Virginia, hospital that suspected another case of anthrax, but later said it was unlikely.

"We err on the side of caution," Ryan said.

Florida officials have focused their tests on the Boca Raton headquarters of American Media, publisher of the National Enquirer, the Globe and other titles, where both Florida victims worked.

In Virginia, a man who may have worked in a building owned by AMI was tested for anthrax on Monday night after coming to the hospital with flu-like symptoms and signs of confusion.

Ryan said doctors treated the man, who was not identified, with the antibiotic ciprofloxin, which can be used to treat anthrax in its very early stages, rushed tests to state health authorities and called the FBI.

Preliminary tests showed the man probably did not have anthrax.

Ryan said most U.S. doctors, who would be at the front lines in any germ warfare attack, had much to learn about diseases like anthrax and smallpox, which was eradicated in 1980.

"This is a work in progress," he said. "But we're going to get better and better at it."

DOCTORS URGED TO REPORT ILLNESSES

The Florida Medical Association on Tuesday formed an emergency task force to educate doctors to identify biological and chemical agents and ways to treat them. It urged doctors to report any suspicious diseases to county authorities and the federal government to facilitate an early warning system.

The group warned against giving patients prescriptions of antibiotics to keep on hand in the event of a possible attack, saying they could have side effects. Some pharmacies have already reported a run on the antibiotic Cipro, which is made by Bayer.

Experts say an attack with biological weapons is likely to be insidious rather than instantly dramatic, with infections possibly spreading for days or even weeks until detected. The first signs would probably come with the appearance of a few patients at a clinic.

Ryan and the medical directors of emergency rooms in the Washington area have already met to map out their response in the event of an attack, and similar meetings are going on around the country.

Robert Byrd, director of emergency services for Anderson County in eastern Tennessee, said he was meeting with doctors and other emergency officials, but the county was far from a concrete response plan for any biological attack.

"We are just trying to not panic and overreact," he said. "I want to think it's rather unlikely, but I think it would be foolish to say it's not going to happen here. It could."

The Centres for Disease Control in Atlanta , which has been overrun with queries, provides data on its Web site, www.bt.cdc.gov, about anthrax, botulism, smallpox, the pneumonic plague and other diseases known to have been developed as germ warfare agents.

Fifteen CDC epidemiologists and public health advisers are in Florida to investigate the anthrax cases there.

The U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases, in Fort Detrick, Maryland, has also registered increased interest in its 12-hour satellite course for civilian doctors and public health officials on how to respond to such an attack.

-- Anonymous, October 09, 2001