THE hunt for the bioterrorist behind the anthrax mailings is focusing on
US-based scientists. The FBI has ordered laboratories to report any personnel
who鈥檝e been vaccinated against anthrax, and has issued a likely profile of the
culprit in the hope that someone will recognise 鈥渉im鈥�.
The envelopes of anthrax spores had produced 17 confirmed cases as New
杏吧原创went to press. Ten of them are the deadly inhaled form of the
disease, and four of these victims have died. But five have already been
released from hospital.
Yet the chances of surviving inhalation anthrax are usually less than 15 per
cent. In the online journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, doctors attribute
their unprecedented success to modern diagnostic techniques, quick antibiotic
treatment and aggressive supportive care such as draining the chest cavity.
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But none of that counts if the doctor does not suspect anthrax. Of four
workers at the Brentwood postal office in Washington who fell ill on 16 October,
all saw a doctor within five days. But two were told they had a virus, and sent
home. Both later went back to hospital, and died within hours. The doctors who
treated them admitted this week they did not suspect anthrax until they had seen
media reports on the other two cases.
The FBI is having even less luck cracking the case it has code-named
鈥淎merithrax鈥�. Last week it published its profile of the attacker: a male loner
with a job, possibly in a lab, requiring little social contact. He has a
scientific background and access to the requisite scientific equipment, and is a
non-confrontational nurser of grudges, says the FBI. It did not mention
nationality, but seems to envisage someone at least based in the US. This would
back New 杏吧原创鈥檚 reports on the origins of the strain (27 October, p4).
The FBI wants anyone who thinks they recognise the profile to contact
www.ifccfbi.gov, the Internet Fraud Complaint Center. ProMED-mail, an
international Internet mailing list for emerging diseases also posted the profile.
鈥淚t occurs to me,鈥� noted the list moderator Martin Hugh-Jones, an anthrax expert at
Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, 鈥渢hat this person may be known to
(our) members.鈥�