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CNN Live Saturday

Medical Correspondent Explains Anthrax

Aired October 13, 2001 - 14:33   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: America is getting the message about the anthrax threat, but there is still much to learn. And here to give us some information our medical news correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Let me, first of all, ask you about something we just heard from the report from Maria Hinojosa moments ago. Testing under way in New York, there at NBC, and although there is one employee that did test -- that does have the disease (UNINTELLIGIBLE), but the testing on the materials came up negative at some point.

SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And we have talked to several people who are experts in this field about that, and it is a bit of a mystery. You test the powder and it's negative, yet someone contracts the bacteria, as you said, Leon.

Three theories on this. One is that perhaps she did not contract the bacteria from this powder. That's sort of less likely given the circumstance lately. Two other theories: One is that the spores that we have been hearing so much about are actually dormant or sleeping sort of spores, so when you try to grow them in a laboratory, they don't grow, and therefore you can never validate that they were present. And the final reason is sort of a needle in a haystack theory, Leon, if you will. You have a bunch of spores, maybe 1,000 spores amongst a trillion other particles, some other sort of powder, and if you sample just a small part of that you may not get any spores at all, so it may in fact look negative when in fact some spores were in fact present in the powder.

So, some things that I'm sure the people who are testing this are looking out for.

HARRIS: All right, well, tell us this. Give us some information about this bacteria specifically here. How manly spores do you have to actually inhale or somehow get introduced to your skin or whatever to actually come down with this?

GUPTA: Usually, 5,000 to 25,000 spores, which sounds like a lot...

HARRIS: Thousands.

GUPTA: Thousands of spores. It sounds like a lot, but just to give you a frame of reference -- a gram of anthrax contains about a trillion spores, so it doesn't need to be that much in terms of quantity.

HARRIS: OK. Then, tell us then how it is spread.

GUPTA: Usually, it's spread -- it's important to say it's not spread from person to person. Once these spores get into your body, and I guess most people, viewers, recognize this, because they know it's not spread from person to person, but once they get into your body, they can't -- it's really hard for them to get back out. You may cough or sneeze a few spores, but you're not going to cough up or sneeze a few thousand spores, which is what is needed to be actually contagious.

HARRIS: All right, then if you were trying to infect the other person, as these people who are sending these things through the mail are doing, how is it that it survives in some sort of powdery residue or whatever, as we keep hearing reported? How does it survive in that particular form, and then gets activated when it actually comes into contact with a person?

GUPTA: That's right. So, the spores are actually pretty dormant. They got a tough lining around them. What they need to actually start growing, or germinating, is the term that microbiologists use, germinating, is actually some nutrients, and the body, in this case the lungs or the skin, provide a very good area where they might get some nutrients, some blood. And once that happens, these spores tend to grow, release some toxins and wreak the havoc that we've been hearing so much about.

HARRIS: Now, I've been hearing a different -- just listening to people talk about -- even though there really isn't a widespread panic about it, there are some people out there, the more pushy patients that doctors have to deal with from time to time, who are out there actually pushing their doctors to give them prescriptions for these vaccines that are actually out there to stop piling it for whatever reason. Now, when you talk to your colleagues, are you hearing many stories like that?

GUPTA: Absolutely. I mean, you know, ciprofloxicin is an antibiotic that probably very few people have actually heard of, but it's sort of a national name people recognize. And there are pushy patients, and there's a lot of justified fear out there regarding anthrax, probably.

A couple of important things to keep in mind: We've only had two cases, really, four exposures, but only two cases. So, whatever way that this anthrax is being spread around is not a very effective one. You certainly have many other things to worry about, and this has only killed one in 300,000 million people here in this country. Car accidents, the flu alone this winter will be much more devastating than that.

But also, if you're very seriously concerned about it, if you think that you've come in contact with anthrax, go get tested. Get your nose swabbed, get your fingers, your skin swabbed, things like that. Before you start taking antibiotics, sometimes those can have side effects as well, so something to watch out for. HARRIS: And there are too many antibiotics out there concerned that this germ can become or develop resistance to it as well?

GUPTA: Exactly. Anytime you introduce a large quantity of antibiotics in the community, it may in fact select for more resistant type organisms, tougher organisms, if you will, that will be harder to control later on down the road, so you got to sort of think about the future here as well.

HARRIS: Exactly. Makes the problem a lot more worse than it is right now.

GUPTA: Exactly.

HARRIS: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you very much.

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