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American Morning

Anthrax Scare: Fears About Disease Spreading Fast

Aired October 16, 2001 - 09:38   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: We continue to talk about anthrax this morning. The number of those exposed to or being tested for exposure to it is growing every day. But fears about the disease seem to be spreading even faster.

CNN medical correspondent Rhonda Rowland joins us from the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta with the latest on how scientist there are handling the anthrax cases.

Good morning again.

RHONDA ROWLAND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, again, Paula.

And I can tell you the CDC is consumed by the anthrax scare. We're told that here at the CDC, they've set up a command center, an operations center, where they have about 50 workstations, and that's where they're coordinating the field operations in New York, in Florida and elsewhere. They also have a phone bank, where they've handling inquiries from the public. The public obviously very concerned. They're getting Hundreds, if now thousands of calls a day.

But the CDC officials here have assured us that they have clear procedures about when it's appropriate to inform the public about the potential health threats.

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DR. DAVID FLEMING, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, CDC: In any of these investigations it's not a yes or no with respect to an answer; it's you accumulate evidence and you form a judgment. What CDC is when in our mind the answer becomes sufficiently clear, not confirmatory, but sufficiently clear that it's appropriate to take public health action, that's when we set that in motion, alert the authorities, alert the public.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROWLAND: Dr. Fleming told us, there's definitely a threshold here. They may not always wait until they're absolutely certain about a potential threat, as in the anthrax situation, because they want to make sure there's the right action to protect the public, because they would rather be safe than sorry -- Paula.

ZAHN: Thanks so much, Rhonda. Appreciate it. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com