Second Case of Anthrax Leads F.B.I. Into Inquiry — “The F.B.I. took over the investigation of anthrax contamination in South Florida today after a co-worker of a man who died from the illness last week was also found to have spores of the disease.
Law enforcement officials said privately that the presence of anthrax in two co-workers, and on the computer keyboard of the man who died, was highly suspicious even though they had no evidence of criminal or terrorist activity.” The office site is “…within several miles of where some of the men involved in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks had lived, taken flight lessons and looked into the purchase of a crop-dusting plane, an indication to some that the men were considering an act of bioterrorism. ” There is also an unsubstantiated report from an area pharmacy that a man fitting the description of one of the hijackers filled a prescription for the antibiotic Cipro, which can be used against anthrax infection, there earlier this year. New York Times [name: “FMHreader”, password: “FMHreader”]
The Washington Post reports that the Florida media firm where the anthrax has appeared has had harsh words for bin Laden in the past.
Science Times is also covering “ideas, some far off and some surprisingly close at hand, that are being pursued in what could become the nation’s newest medical battle — the war against bioterrorism.
The new battle will be fought with the tools of biotechnology, genomics and immunology. The genomes of microbes can now be sequenced in a matter of weeks, giving new insights into their structure. In the last two weeks one group of scientists at Harvard Medical School reported finding a gene variation that makes mice resistant to anthrax, and another group said it had designed a molecule that protected rats against normally lethal doses of anthrax toxin.
Indeed, unlike some other areas of defense-related research, bio-defense work will have numerous civilian spinoffs, since doctors must respond to new pathogens that arise naturally, like H.I.V. and West Nile virus.”
