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CNN Live At Daybreak
America Recovers: How Anthrax Affects Children
Aired October 16, 2001 - 07:40 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: The news that an infant has been diagnosed with anthrax raises new concerns about parents (INAUDIBLE) parents already on the edge, and joining us now to talk more about that and how anthrax affects children is CNN medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
Good morning doctor.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning Paula.
ZAHN: You know doctor, I think the mayor made it very clear. We don't have a lot of details on this case at ABC News. We do know someone has confirmed for us that this young child was crawling in a - in a workspace at ABC News.
Other than that, no one is sure what the source of the anthrax was. Walk us through what impact, any exposure to anthrax has on a young child.
GUPTA: Sure. You know, one of the things to draw right at the top Paula, certainly the difference between kids and adults, when it comes to fighting off these sorts of infections, a lot of parents know their kids get sick often and that's because kids at an early age especially haven't been exposed to a lot of bacteria and so they're seeing them for the first time and thus, get, you know, many colds a year - five to nine colds a year for a young child.
Kids really aren't any more susceptible to the anthrax bacteria than an adult is, especially at the age of seven months when a kid's immune system is really working quite well. So you know, in this situation, just like in an adult, the kid had an abrasion or some sort of open skin somewhere and somehow the anthrax spores were able to get into that space.
That could cause an infection just like an adult, but sort of the question I've been asked a lot is was this kid at more risk. Why was he or she the only one to get it and really no physiological reason - no reason based on the kid's immune system that he should be any more susceptible.
ZAHN: They also have confirmed at ABC News that this is the kind of anthrax that is contracted through the skin, not the inhaled variety. GUPTA: That's right and that's good news Paula. The skin version, the cutaneous version, it's also known as, is much less dangerous, much easier to treat. The antibiotics that you give to an adult would work in the kid as well. Cipro, the antibiotic we've been hearing so much about recently, hasn't been tested as much in kids as a lot of antibiotics haven't, but the infectious disease doctor that I've spoken to about this said that that's what they would use to treat the child just like they would an adult.
ZAHN: All right doctor, I want you to try to clear up some confusion for us this morning. ABC News says that no employees have asked for any antibiotics as a precaution and yet, I spoke with Senator Tom Daschle, who confirmed the fact that 40 of his staffers are currently being treated with antibiotics because of one office worker's exposure to anthrax. They can't confirm this morning whether it's the skin type or the inhaled kind.
Can you explain to us, is there dichotomy here?
GUPTA: Well I think that a lot of that has to do with the likelihood of exposure and certainly in Senator Daschle's case, they found a localized area where the - where the anthrax was and were able to identify those who might have been exposed to this letter.
In the ABC case, we're not exactly sure, you know, how this all came about and they haven't - my understanding is they haven't found anthrax for sure in the building yet. Most likely, obviously that's where this child actually got the anthrax, but unclear as to, you know, where you'd even start in some situation like this as far as who to treat and antibiotics when you introduce large doses of antibiotics sort of indiscriminately that can have its share of problems as well.
So I think they're just trying to be a little bit more focused in who should be treated and why.
ZAHN: All right and doctor, I don't know whether you heard it, but I interviewed the head of BioPort this morning who manufactures the anthrax vaccine. As you know, some members in the military have been adamantly opposed to taking it. He says it's safe and ultimately it might even be available to the American public.
Are you 100 percent sure of that vaccine safety?
GUPTA: Well the - what we've heard about the vaccine, there's some itchiness to the skin, redness, things like that. What we're talking about, I think, is some controversy over whether this may have caused something known as Gulf War Syndrome nearly a decade ago.
There has been no - we talked to the FDA people about that. They said there's been no links between this vaccine and those syndromes. It's very much just localized reaction to the vaccine as you get with most other vaccines.
ZAHN: All right Dr. Gupta. Thanks so much for your help this morning. We'll see you a little bit later on and we're going to take a short break here and at the top of the hour bring you completely up to date on all of the latest developments.
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