Anthrax:  Brentwood Test Successful, Officials Say

A small-scale test of the planned fumigation process for decontaminating the Brentwood Road postal facility in Washington has been a success, the U.S. Postal Service said yesterday (see GSN, Aug. 21).

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analyzed more than 190 liquid samples and 10 air samples from the July 29 test.  All the samples have tested negative for anthrax, demonstrating that no spores survived the chlorine dioxide used in the test process, postal officials said.  Preparations to fumigate the entire facility have begun, they added.

“These test results should ensure the community that the fumigation process will be a success,” Washington Health Department Senior Deputy Director Theodore Gordon said (Randolph Schmid, Associated Press/Boston Globe, Aug. 23).

For further information, see:

GSN Anthrax Attack Chronology (Dec. 12, 2001)

CDC Frequently Asked Questions About Anthrax

Journal of the American Medical Association Background on Anthrax

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Anthrax I:  Researchers Discover Enzyme to Destroy, Detect Cells

Researchers at Rockefeller University in New York have discovered a viral enzyme that could be used to both detect and destroy anthrax bacteria, the New York Times reported today (see GSN, June 10).

The enzyme, called a lysin, was isolated from a type of virus that attacks an anthrax bacterium and replicates inside it, according to the Times.  When the virus particles need to escape the bacterial cell, they create the lysin, which breaks down the cell wall.

While a virus uses the lysin within a cell, the enzyme can also break down an anthrax cell wall from the outside.  In a study of mice that were infected with a close cousin of anthrax and given doses of lysin, most of the mice survived the infection, according to a report published today in the journal Nature.

The lysin could be used to treat humans who have been exposed to anthrax spores, said the researchers, whose work was funded by the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency.  If administered shortly after exposure, the lysin could destroy anthrax bacteria before they would have a chance to release deadly toxins.  While strains of anthrax can be made resistant to antibiotics, they cannot be made resistant to the lysin, said Vincent Fischetti, one of the authors of the report.

Another important characteristic of the lysin is that it only attacks anthrax and a rare cousin, according to the researchers.  This means that the enzyme also could be used as a detector for anthrax spores (see GSN, July 22).  The researchers have developed a hand-held detection device that uses the lysin, said Raymond Schuch, one of the authors of the report.  A lysin-based detector could detect a sample of 2,500 anthrax spores in about 10 minutes or a sample as small as 100 spores in about an hour, according to the Times.

Lysins for other pathogens could be added to the detection devices, the Times reported.  The Rockefeller research team has begun work on lysins from viruses that attack bacteria for cholera and the plague (Nicholas Wade, New York Times, Aug. 22)

The Food and Drug Administration has given anthrax lysin “fast track” status for testing and development.  The enzyme will probably be ready for testing on primates in about a year, and officials should be able to add it to the U.S. pharmaceutical stockpile within three years, Fischetti said.

The discovery is “potentially very important and an exciting proof of principle,” said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health.

“The double whammy here is its potential for treating anthrax infections and its high degree of specificity as a tool for detecting and diagnosing the anthrax bacterium,” Fauci said.  “They’re harnessing nature to fight an enemy” (David Perlman, San Francisco Chronicle, Aug. 22).

For further information, see:

CDC Frequently Asked Questions About Anthrax

FBI Amerithrax Investigation

Journal of the American Medical Association Background on Anthrax

GSN Anthrax Attack Chronology (Dec. 12, 2001)

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Anthrax II:  Postal Service Expands Testing

The U.S. Postal Service tested three postal centers in New Jersey yesterday for anthrax spores similar to those found in a mailbox in Princeton (see GSN, Aug. 19).

Officials tested an outside loading dock at the Hamilton Township postal center, which became contaminated with anthrax during last fall’s attacks (see GSN, July 31).  Even though the center has been closed since October, the dock has remained in use to transfer mail.  Investigators also tested a second mail distribution center near the Hamilton Township facility and the main post office in Princeton.

Postal officials previously had tested two postal centers in New Jersey that might have processed mail originating from a tainted Princeton mailbox.  The decision to expand the anthrax testing was made Tuesday, said Postal Service spokesman Dan Quinn.

“These three centers were determined to be a possible route mail from Princeton could have traveled,” Quinn said (Robert Hanley, New York Times, Aug. 22).

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Smallpox:  Israel to Vaccinate 15,000 Emergency Personnel Workers

Israeli officials decided today to vaccinate 15,000 security and emergency response personnel against smallpox (see GSN, Aug. 19).  The move is intended to prepare for the low possibility of an Iraqi attack with weapons of mass destruction, officials said.

Raanan Gissin, an aide to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said he does not know when the vaccination program will begin.  The Israeli Health Ministry has begun preparing vaccines, he said.

“It’s just part of the overall preparation of a very, very unlikely scenario,” Gissin said.  “It’s a very remote contingency.”

The security and emergency response personnel are to be vaccinated in preparation for the possibility that they might be deployed, Gissin said.

“We want to be prepared for every type of contingency,” he said.  “It’s not something that had to do with any immediate threat” (Jerusalem Post, Aug. 21).

The vaccination program is a first step for a possible larger mass vaccination campaign if needed, said Israeli Agriculture Minister Shalom Simhon.  The Health Ministry recently said that it would begin to vaccinate the entire Israeli population against smallpox in the event of a U.S. attack on Iraq.

“At a later stage, if necessary, the vaccinations will be given to the entire population,” Simhon said.  “At the present time there is no threat that demands vaccination of the whole population, but if it becomes necessary, the systems will be ready” (Ha’aretz, Aug. 21).

For further information, see:

CDC Smallpox Information

Journal of the American Medical Association Background on Smallpox

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Anthrax:  Brentwood Fumigation Test Results Are Late

Results from a test fumigation of the anthrax-contaminated Brentwood Road postal facility in Washington are two weeks late, and officials do not know when they will be ready, the Washington Times reported today (see GSN, July 31).

The U.S. Postal Service conducted a small-scale test July 29 to evaluate a fumigation process for decontaminating the facility.  Officials said then the results from the test would be available within 10 days.

The Postal Service sent 900 collected test strips to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for analysis, the Times reported.  When the results are returned, cleanup officials will know how many spores survived, which will help them plan for fumigating the entire facility, Postal Service spokeswoman Deborah Yakley said.

“We can’t go forward until we know the results of the test,” Yakley said.  “The dates keep falling away” (Jon Ward, Washington Times, Aug. 21).

For further information, see:

CDC Frequently Asked Questions About Anthrax

Journal of the American Medical Association Background on Anthrax

GSN Anthrax Attack Chronology (Dec. 12, 2001)

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Kazakhstan:  Experts Inspect Vozrozhdeniya

A team of Kazakh health experts has arrived on the Vozrozhdeniya peninsula in the Aral Sea to inspect the site where former Soviet biological weapons agents were abandoned, the Kazakhstan Today news agency reported yesterday (see GSN, Feb. 28).  The eight-member team is inspecting the Kazakh section of the peninsula to determine the scale of and necessary funding for planned research at the site (Kazakhstan Today/BBC Worldwide Monitoring, Aug. 19).

The program is an “extremely valuable exercise,” said Gary Simpson, medical director of infectious diseases for New Mexico’s state Health Department.  “There are a lot of ways to prepare for the unimaginable.”

“The more practice that people like us have in actually working through these kinds of models in extremely realistic settings, the better we’re going to do,” he added (Benjamin Pimentel, San Francisco Chronicle, Aug. 19).

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Smallpox:  Israel Begins Vaccination of Health Care Workers

The Israeli Health Ministry has begun vaccinating 1,500 healthcare workers against smallpox, a ministry spokesman said Friday (see GSN, Aug. 14)

The vaccinations are a preliminary measure and are being administered to those who would be responsible for distributing the vaccine to others in the event of an outbreak, Health Ministry spokesman Ido Hadari said.  The vaccinations began in July and have been administered to about 700 people, he said, adding that another 800 have been scheduled.

“If in the future, Israel will decide to vaccinate people, they will be the ones to do the vaccination, so it’s wise to know that they are already vaccinated,” Hadari said.

Those people who have received smallpox vaccine could also provide vaccine immune globulin, a medicine that protects those who cannot be vaccinated because of health concerns such as compromised immune systems, Hadari said.

The Israeli security cabinet is expected to meet Wednesday to discuss expanding the vaccination program to include as many as 150,000 Israeli first responders such as police and emergency personnel, Hadari said (Serge Schmemann, New York Times, Aug. 17).

For further information, see:

CDC Smallpox Information

Journal of the American Medical Association Background on Smallpox

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Anthrax I:  United States Wants Russian Vaccine-Resistant Strain

The United States has been trying to obtain a sample of a Russian, genetically modified strain of anthrax reported to be vaccine-resistant, but Russia has stalled on the requests, USA Today reported today (see GSN, Aug. 8).

U.S. officials said they are concerned the strain could be used against U.S. forces already vaccinated against other strains of anthrax.  The United States has said it wants samples of the Russian strain to analyze it and develop better defenses, according to USA Today.

“Is it resistant to their vaccine?  To our vaccine?  We don’t know.  The vaccines work differently — they’re made differently,” said Arthur Friedlander, an anthrax expert at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Md.  If the Russian strain is resistant to the U.S. anthrax, “it would be of enormous interest to find out how,” he added.

U.S. officials have twice contracted with the Russian State Research Center for Applied Microbiology, which developed the strain, to obtain samples (see GSN, Jan. 18).  The center so far has not fulfilled either contract, citing export regulations.

“It’s a very serious concern,” said Peter Jahrling, lead scientist at the Army institute and a top federal adviser on joint biodefense work in the former Soviet Union.  “We’re making a significant investment with no assurance that we’re going to get any of these strains or even the genome of these strains.”

The United States first contracted with the center, near the Russian city of Obolensk, in 1997 after Russian scientists published research on the strain.  The United States offered $55,000, including a $28,000 grant to the strain’s chief developer, for the center to conduct more research.  The contract also included a provision to provide the United States with a sample.  Center officials, however, said they lacked government approval for the transfer.

The U.S. Defense Department also attempted to obtain a sample of the Russian anthrax strain in 1999, USA Today reported.  Pentagon officials contracted again with the center to pay $325,000 for a sample and for information on the strain’s genome.  Although the genome has been sequenced, researchers have not transferred sequence data to the United States because the same export controls that regulate sample transfers also apply to the sequence, Russian officials said.

“It’s not in Obolensk’s power to resolve this,” said Vladimir Volkov, deputy director of the center.  “Our criteria for exchanges are no less rigid than the Americans’.  There must be an official request at the governmental level; there has to be an agreement” saying it will not be transferred to a third party from laboratories in the United States, he said.

Officials have referred the issue to both the National Security Council and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, according to USA Today.  Some officials have said the problems with the sample transfer can be traced back to midlevel bureaucrats who still have a Cold War-era mentality.

“Maybe if people at the top bang some heads together, something will happen,” Jahrling said.  “I don’t have a lot of hope.  Secrets are secrets.  The Russians have theirs, we have ours.  A lot of people don’t want to share.”

The U.S. struggle to obtain a sample also illustrates the need for a U.S.-Russian exchange agreement to facilitate biological defense research, officials said.

“It’s going to be more and more of a problem because we really need to work with some of these more dangerous pathogens, especially anthrax and smallpox,” a U.S. Embassy official in Moscow said.  “There are a lot of logistical concerns, just moving these strains from Moscow to the U.S. and vice versa.  We need to determine who’ll get access to the strains, how they will be used” (Peter Eisler, USA Today, Aug. 19).

For further information, see:

CDC Frequently Asked Questions About Anthrax

Journal of the American Medical Association Background on Anthrax

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Anthrax II:  Investigators Test Two New Jersey Postal Centers

The discovery of an anthrax-tainted mailbox in Princeton, N.J., has prompted U.S. officials to test two New Jersey mail processing centers for anthrax, authorities said Friday (see GSN, Aug. 15).

Investigators planned to test the Monmouth Processing and Distribution Center in Eatontown and the Kilmer General Mail Facility in Edison yesterday, according to U.S. Postal Service spokeswoman Diane Todd.

“This is totally a precautionary measure,” Todd said.  “No new workers have reported exposure (to anthrax) and there is no new evidence that these facilities are contaminated” (Associated Press/Dallas Morning News, Aug. 16).

Details Emerge

The anthrax-contaminated mailbox — which was located on Nassau Street across from Princeton University’s Holder Hall — held both incoming and outgoing mail, the Daily Princetonian reported Friday.  An incoming letter that had been processed by an anthrax-tainted postal sorting machine could have carried spores to the university, according to the newspaper.  A tainted piece of outgoing mail also could have left spores in the box.  The FBI has not said which part of the mailbox was tainted or whether spores could have spread from one section to the other, the newspaper reported.

The university does not conduct research on anthrax, according to biology faculty members and the university communications office (David Robinson, Daily Princetonian, Aug. 16).

For further information, see:

FBI Amerithrax Investigation

GSN Anthrax Attack Chronology (Dec. 12, 2001)

CDC Frequently Asked Questions About Anthrax

Journal of the American Medical Association Background on Anthrax

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