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American Morning
Supreme Court Justices to Use Doxycycline
Aired October 29, 2001 - 10:02 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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: So, now, where do we stand on anthrax on this Monday? A break down of documented anthrax exposures: There has been a total of 13 anthrax infections. And of those, 3 have been fatal cases of inhalation anthrax. There have been 5 other cases of inhalation anthrax and 5 cases of cutaneous, or skin, anthrax. All together, 32 cases of anthrax exposure. Our Medical Correspondent Rhonda Rowland, now with a closer look at the anthrax cases and an alternative form of antibiotics that will soon join the federal arsenal. Rhonda, good morning to you.
RHONDA ROWLAND, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning to you, Bill. And three of those cases of the inhalation anthrax, the more serious kind, are here in Washington area. Two were among postal workers from the Brentwood facility. They remain in the hospital in serious condition. The other in a State Department mail room worker, also still in the hospital. And, as you mention, the Supreme Court is closed down while environmental testing continues to see if there is any anthrax contamination in that area.
And the Supreme Court justices will be among those who will be receiving a different antibiotic, the antibiotic doxycycline . And as you know, we've been hearing a lot about Cipro, that everybody has been receiving that antibiotic for preventative therapy. But over the weekend, health officials in Washington said that they will now be giving certain groups doxycycline . And those two groups include anyone now being told that they need preventative therapy with antibiotics as well as anyone who was initially put on a short course of Cipro for say, six days and are now being told to come back for a full 60 days, they will be switched to doxycycline . And the Washington health officials explained some of the reasons why they are making the change.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
IVAN WALKS, CHIEF HEALTH OFFICER, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Doxycycline is a better tolerated antibiotic for a lot of people. It's also an antibiotic that we have a lot of experience with long- term. A lot of us in the medical community have been concerned about 60 days of Cipro without a lot of experience in terms of what that does. We've seen some upset stomach type reactions to that. We've seen some really bad reactions in a few people.
Doxycycline is just as effective with respect to killing the anthrax but in addition to that, people can tolerate it. What that means is we'll get better compliance. Folks will take the medication as opposed to stopping on their own because it doesn't agree with them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROWLAND: And doxycycline is also cheaper than Cipro, its also more plentiful, apparently the government has plenty of doxycycline in its drug stockpile. Bill?
HEMMER: Rhonda, just to be clear, is this an official recommendation from the CDC?
ROWLAND: Bill, it's not an official recommendation where the CDC has come out and said we should no longer be using Cipro. No one is backing away from Cipro, but from day one since the first case of inhalation anthrax was detected in Florida, health officials have tried to get the message across that there are other antibiotics, such as doxycycline and penicillin, that are sensitive to this particular bacteria. So what health officials are trying to do here, Bill, is to create a better balance. They don't think it's healthy for anyone to have everybody on Cipro, so they want the public to have confidence in other antibiotics, such as doxycycline, and that's why health officials are putting on this big push now to get others on this alternative antibiotic.
HEMMER: Learn as we go. Rhonda Rowland in Washington. Rhonda, thank you.
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