Anthrax virus wiki

In , researchers discovered that a 30,year-old virus isolated from permafrost was still infectious though, fortunately, not dangerous to humans. The humans infected with anthrax in the Siberia outbreak likely got it from butchering and eating infected animals, Stewart said.

There are three forms of human anthrax, he said. About 80 percent of cases are cutaneous, or introduced through the skin. These cases are eminently treatable with antibiotics and have a mortality rate of 10 to 20 percent if left untreated. Pulmonary anthrax occurs when the spores are inhaled. Without treatment, pulmonary anthrax is almost always fatal, Stewart said.

During the anthrax attacks, in which someone mailed anthrax spores to politicians and news media offices, 22 people were infected and five died. One of the spores was still inside the "mother germ", yet it already had silicon inside its spore coat. Included in the new materials were results of analyses performed on environmental samples collected from an overseas site.

Those analyses yielded evidence of the Ames strain in some samples. NAS recommended a review of those investigations. The NAS committee released its report on February 15, , concluding that it was "impossible to reach any definitive conclusion about the origins of the anthrax in the letters, based solely on the available scientific evidence". Justice Department's conclusion that a single-spore batch of anthrax maintained by Ivins at his laboratory at Fort Detrick in Maryland was the parent material for the spores in the anthrax letters.

Dozens of buildings were contaminated with anthrax as a result of the mailings. AMI moved to a different building. The principal means of decontamination is fumigation with chlorine dioxide gas. The anthrax attacks, as well as the September 11, attacks, have spurred significant increases in U.

Under heavy pressure from then Attorney General John D. Ashcroft , a bipartisan compromise in the House Judiciary Committee allowed legislation for the Patriot Act to move forward for full consideration later that month. Years after the attack, several anthrax victims reported lingering health problems including fatigue, shortness of breath and memory loss. The cause of the reported symptoms is unknown. A study proposed that the total number of people harmed by the anthrax attacks of should be raised to A postal inspector, William Paliscak, became severely ill and disabled after removing an anthrax-contaminated air filter from the Brentwood mail facility on October 19, Although his doctors, Tyler Cymet and Gary Kerkvliet , believe that the illness was caused by anthrax exposure, blood tests did not find anthrax bacteria or antibodies, and therefore the CDC does not recognize it as a case of inhalational anthrax.

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Explore Wikis Community Central. Register Don't have an account? Edit source History Talk 0. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Los Angeles Times. August 3, Archived from the original on 12 May Retrieved April 5, Meryl Nass. Archived from the original on 10 August Retrieved August 10, August 6, Archived from the original on 8 August Retrieved August 7, Archived from the original on 12 August Retrieved August 8, ISBN Retrieved 29 March The New York Times.

Archived from the original on 25 February Retrieved February 19, September 16, Retrieved September 12, Google News. Archived from the original on April 23, Retrieved February 15, Work in Investigating Anthrax Letters". Archived from the original on 17 February Retrieved February 16, Archived from the original on 17 March Retrieved March 30, Retrieved Sun Sentinel.

Retrieved 26 December Archived from the original on 20 April February 7, Frerichs November 5, Michael, September 25, NAS presentation, audio". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 17, Archived from the original on December 7, February 20, Accessed Archived Judicial Watch. Archived from the original on 9 March Retrieved 9 February June 8, The Seattle Times.

Pond Drained for Clues in Anthrax Probe". January 3, September 14, January 26, Steven J. November 29, Confirms Anthrax In Chilean Letter". Retrieved 4 October The Baltimore Sun. June 23, Retrieved 27 September The New York Daily News. October 26, January 30, USA Today. August 24, Frerichs November 2, The Los Angeles Times. The Wall Street Journal. January 24, Archived from the original on 13 May Archived from the original on 7 April This prevents some scavengers from opening the carcasses, thus allowing the putrefactive bacteria within the carcass to kill the vegetative B.

This method also has drawbacks, as scavengers such as hyenas are capable of infiltrating almost any exclosure. The occurrence of previously dormant anthrax, stirred up from below the ground surface by wind movement in a drought-stricken region with depleted grazing and browsing, may be seen as a form of natural culling and a first step in rehabilitation of the area.

Anthrax was first tested as a biological warfare agent by Unit of the Japanese Kwantung Army in Manchuria during the s; some of this testing involved intentional infection of prisoners of war, thousands of whom died. Anthrax, designated at the time as Agent N, was also investigated by the allies in the s.

Weaponized anthrax was part of the U. Colin Powell holding a model vial of anthrax while giving a presentation to the United Nations Security Council. Anthrax spores can and have been used as a biological warfare weapon. Its first modern incidence occurred when Scandinavian "freedom fighters" the rebel groups supplied by the German General Staff used anthrax with unknown results against the Imperial Russian Army in Finland in For example, in British bioweapons trials [38] severely contaminated Gruinard Island in Scotland with anthrax spores of the Vollum strain, making it a no-go area until it was decontaminated in Additionally, five million "cattle cakes" impregnated with anthrax were prepared and stored at Porton Down in "Operation Vegetarian"—an anti-livestock weapon intended for attacks on Germany by the Royal Air Force.

However neither the cakes nor the bomb were used; the cattle cakes were incinerated in late More recently the Rhodesian government used anthrax against cattle and humans in the period — during its war with black nationalists.

American military and British Army personnel are routinely vaccinated against anthrax prior to active service in places where biological attacks are considered a threat.

Weaponized stocks of anthrax in the US were destroyed in —72 after President Nixon ordered the dismantling of US biowarfare programs in and the destruction of all existing stockpiles of bioweapons. The Soviet Union created and stored to tons of anthrax spores at Kantubek on Vozrozhdeniya Island.

They were abandoned in and destroyed in Despite signing the agreement to end bioweapon production the government of the Soviet Union had an active bioweapons program that included the production of hundreds of tons of weapons-grade anthrax after this period.

On April 2, some of the over one million people living in Sverdlovsk now called Ekaterinburg, Russia , about miles east of Moscow, were exposed to an accidental release of anthrax from a biological weapons complex located near there.

At least 94 people were infected, of whom at least 68 died. One victim died four days after the release, ten over an eight-day period at the peak of the deaths, and the last six weeks later.

Extensive cleanup, vaccinations and medical interventions managed to save about 30 of the victims. Jeanne Guillemin reported in that a combined Russian and United States team investigated the accident in Nearly all of the night shift workers of a ceramics plant directly across the street from the biological facility compound 19 became infected, and most died. Since most were men, there were suspicions by NATO governments that the Soviet Union had developed a sex-specific weapon.

They also ordered that all stray dogs be shot and that people not have contact with sick animals. There was also a voluntary evacuation and anthrax vaccination program established for people from 18— To support the cover-up story Soviet medical and legal journals published articles about an outbreak in livestock that caused GI anthrax in people who consumed infected meat, and cutaneous anthrax in people who came into contact with the animals.

All medical and public health records were confiscated by the KGB. In the US government was allowed to investigate the incident, and concluded that the exposure was from aerosol anthrax from a military weapons facility. The Soviet Union, like the US and UK, had agreed to submit information to the UN about their bioweapons programs but omitted known facilities and never acknowledged their weapons program.

Theoretically anthrax spores can be cultivated with minimal special equipment and a first-year collegiate microbiological education, but in practice the procedure is difficult and dangerous. To make large amounts of an aerosol form of anthrax suitable for biological warfare requires extensive practical knowledge, training, and highly advanced equipment.

Concentrated anthrax spores were used for bioterrorism in the anthrax attacks in the United States, delivered by mailing postal letters containing the spores. Bruce Ivins , a senior biodefense researcher employed by the United States government, was responsible. Due to these events, the U. Postal Service installed biohazard detection systems at its major distribution centers to actively scan for anthrax being transported through the mail. In response to the postal anthrax attacks and hoaxes the US Postal Service sterilized some mail using a process of gamma irradiation and treatment with a proprietary enzyme formula supplied by Sipco Industries Ltd.

Military Wiki Explore. Popular pages. Grant Richard Winters Harry Welsh. Project maintenance. Explore Wikis Community Central. Register Don't have an account? Edit source History Talk 0. For other uses, see Anthrax disambiguation. Microphotograph of a Gram stain of the bacterium Bacillus anthracis , the cause of the anthrax disease. Main article: Bacillus anthracis. Main article: Sverdlovsk anthrax leak. Morgan Digital object identifier: PMID Cohn School of Dentistry, University of Louisville.

Retrieved Retrieved 17 February The etiology of anthrax, based on the ontogenesis of Bacillus anthracis , Cohns Beitrage zur Biologie der Pflanzen , vol. September Retrieved 2 November BBC News.

Retrieved 25 February January 12, Discriminating inhalational anthrax from community-acquired pneumonia using chest radiograph findings and a clinical algorithm. Emergency Preparedness and Response. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Associated Press, May 21, , published in Forbes.

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Domestic and wild animals such as cattle, sheep, goats, antelope, and deer can become infected when they breathe in or ingest spores in contaminated soil, plants, or water. In areas where domestic animals have had anthrax in the past, routine vaccination can help prevent outbreaks. Anthrax is most common in agricultural regions of Central and South America, sub-Saharan Africa, central and southwestern Asia, southern and eastern Europe, and the Caribbean.

Anthrax is rare in the United States, but sporadic outbreaks do occur in wild and domestic grazing animals such as cattle or deer. Anthrax is more common in developing countries and countries that do not have veterinary public health programs that routinely vaccinate animals against anthrax.

In the United States, yearly vaccination of livestock is recommended in areas where animals have had anthrax in the past. The document is available for download in multiple languages below.