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American Morning

America's New War: Bioterrorism in the US

Aired October 01, 2001 - 09:41   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: In many of the discussions about bioterrorism, we've been hearing a lot about anthrax. If anthrax spores are released into the air, how well would we be protected? Well, CNN Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us now, from Atlanta, with some answers this morning. Good morning, Doctor.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula, Yes, well, I'll tell you, a lot of people have raised some legitimate concerns about anthrax. One of the key points I think to point out right away is that we really don't know that much about it for it hasn't been a case of inhaled anthrax for 20 years. Most of what we know about it came from 1979 when 79 people were exposed, 68 of whom died subsequently, so a lot of what we know about anthrax is sort of theoretical--from animal studies and laboratory studies things like that--and certainly people are a little reticent to knowingly expose people to anthrax in an effort to study it.

GUPTA: Having said all that, certainly there are some antibiotics which do appear to be effective in the laboratory. Ciprofloxacin which we've heard so much about already this morning certainly is one of them. We don't know how well it would work in the case of inhaled anthrax, however, and that's something people are starting to try to find out.

ZAHN: So Doctor, my question to you is as we read the articles you see the cover stories and that can't help but make most Americans out there pretty darn nervous. What is the best advice you can give them today?

GUPTA: Right. And I think that's a good point. You know, certainly there is fair amount of justified fear out there. But I think that for private citizens as well as doctors and everybody has to be a good sense of judgment with how to approach that as well. Using antibiotics without any judicious sort of guideline could be dangerous as well. Ciprofloxacin does have some side effects in kids and anytime you use antibiotics--introduce large quantities of antibiotics in the community you may actually cause organisms that become resistant to those antibiotics to develop. So there should be some judgment used in those sorts of situation.

Although as I said there's also a fair amount of justified fear. So, people are starting to find out if ciprofloxacin would be something you could use and how effective it would be. And as that data comes out we may have some better answers. ZAHN: Yeah, I'll tell you it's really tough. I mean Miles and I have been sitting here all morning trying to figure our out what we should do for own families. And I think we're in the same quandary millions of other American families are in as well.

GUPTA: That's right, I am too. It's a fair question out there right now.

Paula: Okay, Dr. Gupta. Thanks so much.

GUPTA: Thank you.

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