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CNN Live At Daybreak

Explaining Anthrax

Aired October 05, 2001 - 07:10   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: And we should make it clear that anthrax is not contagious, but health officials are wondering whether others could contract the disease from whatever source infected the Florida man.

And our medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us from Atlanta with more on this. Doctor, good morning.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.

That's exactly right. A lot of times anthrax, especially inhalational anthrax, involves getting very small pores into the lungs and once they're in the lungs they're really not contagious. And that's an important point that doctors are reinforcing. A man who has it, even a group of people who have it, are unlikely to spread that to other people.

Inhalational anthrax, incidentally, is one of the least common types of anthrax. There's only been about 18 cases from 1900 to 1976, and no case over the last 25 years until today.

Getting it through the skin is actually the most common. Over 95 percent of the cases are cutaneous, or through the skin. Paula.

ZAHN: So what would be the most likely cause of this?

GUPTA: You know, it's interesting, I've talked to several infectious disease doctors and no one really knows for sure, I guess is the right answer. People do talk about the fact that you have naturally occurring anthrax and that's because the spores that everyone keeps talking about are very resistant to environmental changes. They can actually live in the soil for years and if suddenly some of that soil is disturbed, perhaps some of the spores could be released and have infected that particular gentleman. You need to breathe in about five to 25,000 spores to actually get the disease.

As John Zarrella was pointing out earlier and we talked about yesterday, as well, there is a hyper acute awareness of anthrax right now and in the past, even over the last 25 years, there may have been cases that may have been chalked up to simply unknown, just never figured out exactly what the bacteria was because anthrax wasn't something people typically looked for.

But certainly, Paula, in this climate, immediately the specimen was sent to the CDC, as this gentleman had very unusual symptoms. He already had symptoms that were similar to meningitis, an infection of the brain, which is very serious.

ZAHN: All right, doctors are now confirming that this patient doesn't seem to. despite the critical condition he's in. doesn't seem to have digestive problems. Can you rule out contaminated water at this point?

GUPTA: What they found, how they made the diagnosis, from what I understand, is they actually had some of his secretions from his lungs and, again, that is almost an absolute diagnosis of the inhaled type of anthrax. There was a lot made of the fact that he did drink from some spring water or creek water earlier yesterday, but that would, as you say, Paula, actually probably give you the ingested form of anthrax, which doesn't look like he probably has.

So most likely this is just inhalational anthrax, which is the most serious type.

ZAHN: And there's the issue of how long the stuff incubates for, right? Wouldn't it, from what I've read. and you're the doctor here. but doesn't it take several days if you were to drink this water for it to affect you?

GUPTA: That's right. That's an important point, Paula. Because these spores are so resistant, it can be a long time. We don't know exactly when he was contaminated. Sometimes these spores can get into your body and it can take a couple of weeks to germinate.

Usually what happens is within one to six days you'll start to develop symptoms. But you're absolutely right, Paula. Up to several days, even a month, I've heard, before these spores can actually start to germinate and cause problems.

ZAHN: All right, Sanjay, thanks so much, Dr. Gupta, for your insights this morning.

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