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CNN Live Sunday

Six Cases of Skin Anthrax, Three Cases of Inhalation Anthrax So Far

Aired October 21, 2001 - 15:14   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.
DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: And with the third case of inhalation anthrax to talk about today, Elizabeth Cohen, our medical correspondent, is joining us, and we'll get a little bit of more information on that.

It might not hurt to go over inhalation vs. skin once again -- today, the third inhalation case.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. Three cases of inhalation anthrax so far; six cases of skin anthrax. The same bacteria causes both diseases. However, the inhalation anthrax, which it makes sense, is much more serious than the skin form.

The skin form can be caught much more easily in some ways, because you can see the rashes that happens. At first, it looks like it could just be a bug bite, but eventually it develops into a very nasty-looking ulcer that's black in the middle, and then they can tell that it's anthrax.

And if they catch it early, they can give antibiotics and then treat it very easily. And hundreds of people have had skin anthrax in this country, because people who work on farms get it from anthrax (sic).

Inhalation anthrax, though, is much more unusual and is much more deadly. If it is not treated with antibiotics pretty quickly, hopefully before actual symptoms set in, then it can be fatal. That doesn't mean it always is fatal, but it can be very likely be fatal. In fact, if it's untreated, it likely is that it will be fatal.

So those are the basic differences there, and you know, luckily most of the cases that we're seeing now are skin anthrax, not inhalation anthrax.

KELLEY: And since those symptoms are like flu symptoms, if you feel like that, probably a good idea to get checked.

COHEN: Yes, but it's only really -- you only really need to worry if you have been exposed in some way. For example, if someone works in the NBC Building and has those flu-like symptoms, they really have much more reason to be concerned than if you just worked in some random building someplace else. This is not a disease you can get from other people. It's only a disease you can get if you were directly exposed. So that's why mail workers or people who work at NBC, ABC, CBS, any of those media buildings where it happened, they would be more likely to be concerned.

Now, the way the doctors know that it's anthrax is that there are several tests that give them indications. Also as they follow the person, they will see the symptoms change to become much more serious than just flu symptoms.

KELLEY: Any word that you've gotten so far why so many on Capitol Hill after they got the letter to Senator Daschle's office -- 28 at last count, that I saw?

COHEN: Right, 28 exposed on Capitol Hill. And that all of the outbreaks that we've seen, there have been 32. So 28 on Capitol Hill and 4 in all of other ones put together.

I haven't heard anyone give a really good answer as to why that's true. I've heard a couple of theories, but, of course, we don't know if those are true or not.

But one thing I think that's important to think about, and that the CDC has pointed out, is that people have handled these letters in different ways. If someone received a letter that had anthrax in it in the form of a power, if they just opened it with a letter opener very gently and saw the power and didn't say, oh, gee, I wonder what this is, and put their head in it, and then they just put it -- if they just looked at it from sort of afar, put it down on the table, washed their hands, left, called 911, they would probably the only person who would be at risk.

But what I've been told has been happening in some of these incidents is that if someone looks at it, they get close into it, they say to their friend, hey, look at this, what do you think, and then they call other people over. And so, I think that it's possible that just that these letters were handled in different ways, and that more people were close in the vicinity.

KELLEY: Talking about that and, of course, four sites on the Hill now that they are looking, and they're closed for business until Tuesday morning, how do you get it out of the system if it is, in fact, in the ventilation system, or if it's sitting on somebody's desk after they've opened a letter? But what do they do?

COHEN: There are ways that they can get rid of it, which is actually, in a way, pretty interesting, because anthrax is a very hardy bacteria. In its spore form, it is covered with -- it's like a seed that's covered by a hard shell. So if there is anthrax out on a table, or when you find anthrax in the soil, it can survive for a very, very long time.

But there are chemicals that can get rid of it. There are even chemicals that could be put into a ventilation system, which has lots of nooks and crannies and bends and what not. So there really are chemicals that can get rid of it, but it does take some work, because it is such a hardy spore.

KELLEY: Yes, and one of these times, we're going to talk a little bit more about the flu, because this is traditionally when you get a flu shot. And we'll talk about that and the numbers, you know, that people have to worry about that and should watch for that.

Elizabeth Cohen, thanks very much -- our medical correspondent.

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