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CNN Live At Daybreak

America Strikes Back: Some New Developments in Anthrax Case Causing Lot of Concern

Aired October 09, 2001 - 08:32   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: Back here in the U.S., some new developments in the anthrax case causing a lot of concern and a lot of questions too. A suspected case in Virginia turned out to be negative this morning. That shifted the anthrax focus back to Florida, where 63-year-old Robert Stevens died of inhaled anthrax last week. He was a photo editor at a company that published supermarket tabloids.

For more on this, CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta and a look now.

There you are now, my fried. I thought we were going to go to a story from you.

You've been looking into this case and you've been talking to people throughout the morning here. What are you finding how out about indeed you will go about tracing this sort of anthrax?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's very interesting, there are some good tests out there, and one of the tests that we haven't heard too much about, but we probably will, is something called PCR, preliminary chain reaction. I bring this up not to be too science-y, Bill, but rather to say that these tests are very good, genetic tests. They actually can tell us two things. One is, is this anthrax artificial or natural? And two, if it is artificial, from where did it come? This bacteria doesn't exist in very many places around the country, so it's relatively easy to try to figure out from where exactly it came.

HEMMER: So what you're saying then, because it's so rare that you can actually find it's source by tracing it back?

GUPTA: That's right, and that's what the experts are telling me, they can find the soil that the anthrax spores existed in before they were manufactured altered, and all those things.

I want to add one more thing, though, and I think it's an important point. The first anthrax, the first patient was sensitive to penicillin. That's an important point, because typically, manufactured anthrax is antibiotic resistant to penicillin. This is sensitive. That still adds some fodder to the argument against manufacturing, although, you know, that may be changing, though that's an important point.

HEMMER: And we also want to caution our viewers when we talk about this that we're really trying to follow this along as best we can on a daily basis. And I talked with the head of health in Florida last hour, wondering if this person has indeed been in contact with anthrax. We have all been told how lethal it is. Why is he still with us? Why is he still alive?

GUPTA: Well, I think it's an important point, because many times, using anthrax the way that we've been speculating that maybe it could have been used isn't very effective. A lot of times these spores just get caught up in the nasal cavity. They never make their way down to the lungs to actually wreak the havoc that unfortunately happened in the first gentleman. Not a very effective tool in the world of bioterrorism.

HEMMER: The other thing we're looking at is some reports that possibly this arrived at this building this Florida by way of a letter. If that is the case, would you have to go back and trace everyone that came into contact and had the possibility to come in contact with the letter right through the postal system?

GUPTA: Well, typically, with these spores, and we keep hearing the term spores, you'd have to breathe in a large number of spores, several thousand spores to actually have any effect. There are some people that may have come in contact, may have gotten a little bit and breathed in a few spores, such as maybe this gentleman who has had the positive nasal swab. But for the most part, as we're seeing that's not going to cause any problems. Someone who was able to actually hold it in their hand and then you breath in several thousand spores, that would be a different story, as we maybe saw with the first gentleman.

HEMMER: And, again, we want to point out the case in Virginia that was first reported last night, this morning they say no connection at this point?

GUPTA: Yes, but you know, in some ways, this is a public health triumph, and I think that's important to point out. Public health officials went down to Florida. They found a guy who hasn't developed any symptoms. He's going to get treated. They found him by a very sensitive test called a nasal swab test. We're probably going to see a lot of false positives around the country, certainly better than the alternative of a false negative.

HEMMER: Indeed it is, you got it. Sanjay, thanks, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

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