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http://mobile.fosters.comAnthrax from drums at ministry center in Durham still only a logical assumption
By Adam D. Krauss
akrauss@fosters.com
Thursday, December 31, 2009
DURHAM — Until the results of certain tests are known the state's "strongest hypothesis" of what caused a Strafford County woman to contract anthrax at a local ministry center remans just that — a logical assumption.
The state's Division of Public Health Services is waiting for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to say whether the anthrax strains found on two drums, or on samples taken from electrical outlets at the Waysmeet Center, match the strain infecting the woman, who is in critical condition with the nation's first case of gastrointestinal anthrax.
"If the patient's strain does not match the environmental specimen we would imagine this may be a baseline of the presence of anthrax in our environment," Dr. Elizabeth Talbot, a state public health adviser, said in an interview Wednesday. "If the drums have the same strain between them" and the woman it's "highly suggestive of a drum-based aerosolization event."
Such an event is the basis for what Talbot described as "our strongest hypothesis" of how the woman contracted the potentially fatal disease. She has said the naturally occurring, wild-type anthrax could have become "stirred up or agitated" during a Dec. 4 African drumming event at the center, with the woman either inhaling and swallowing the spores or getting them on her fingers before transferring them to her mouth.
The woman brought her own, synthetic drum to the event.
Investigators focused on the center after learning the woman participated in a drum circle there, and in recent years there have been three cases in the U.S. where people handling African drums made of animal hides contracted either cutaneous or inhalation anthrax.
Given the nature of naturally occurring anthrax, the public shouldn't be shocked if the results of CDC testing, which could be available late Friday, suggest the anthrax spores existed at the center before the event, Talbot said.
"If we sample everybody's backyard and everybody's electrical outlet it's not known what we would find, but most certainly there would be some positive results," she said. Talbot said the number of pathogens circulating in the environment is "staggering" and "many more than we know about right now."
She continued to address Wednesday the paradox between the anthrax being a ubiquitous and naturally occurring disease that rarely infects people.
"We have an innate immunity to the environmental pathogens that we encounter on a daily basis," she said. "We are endowed with protections against the organisms in our environment."
Talbot previously said the state had "not identified" a health condition in the woman that could have made her more susceptible to the disease. But, out of respect for the woman's family, she declined to further discuss Wednesday whether the woman was more at risk for the disease than some 60 other drummers who took part in the Dec. 4 event.
"For the majority of people who live with anthrax in their environment ... they will never become ill of this disease," Talbot said.
The state's investigation remains "very active," with officials having researched "every lead" to see if the woman contracted the disease from food, soils or animals, Talbot said. But as of Wednesday "there are no leads that are active for an animal or farm source for her infection," she said.
Anthrax cannot be transmitted from person to person, Talbot said. The disease is an acute infectious and potentially fatal disease that most commonly occurs in wild and domestic animals such as cattle, goats and antelopes, but it can also occur in humans exposed to infected animals.
There are no "other suspect anthrax cases that we're aware of" connected to this episode, Talbot said.
As a precaution, the state is offering antibiotics and the anthrax vaccine to the 60 drummers and 20 others who had access to the center, along with two lab workers at risk of exposure.
The center is home to United Campus Ministry, an interfaith ministry on Mill Road that serves as an outlet for University of New Hampshire students and the community. The center hosts a monthly drum circle that the Rev. Larry Brickner-Wood, executive director of United Campus Ministry, said brings together people to build community spirit and promote well-being. The center was closed by the state until further notice.
The state was still reaching out to the drummers Wednesday and officials could not provide a number of how many had sought the medicine. Officials also ask those who brought their own drums to offer them for testing by calling 271-4496.
Along with the CDC samples, the state is waiting for results of samples taken from the drums stored at the center and other environmental tests. Some of the results could be available today.
The state was able to rule out the use of anthrax as bioterrorism because the woman contracted an "environmental strain" and not one of the weaponized strains cultivated in a lab, Talbot said.
Additional testing and possible decontamination at the site will take place in the coming days, she said.
The woman remains at an undisclosed out-of-state hospital after being transferred from a New Hampshire facility. ///////
So now this is interesting, a woman up the road from me has become the very first person in the country to get this unheard of in our country strain of Antherex.
Weird, how did the organism get into electrical outlets.?
I can understand the disease coming here on imported hides that most drums are made of, hers were not made of hide, so this is a who done it thing.
Question, should we be aware of leather products, gloves, clothing etc that is also imported.?
