The Anthrax Attacks Flashcards
What is Anthrax?
Anthrax is a serious infectious disease caused by gram-positive, rod-shaped bacteria known as Bacillus anthracis. It occurs naturally in soil and commonly affects domestic and wild animals around the world. People can get sick with anthrax if they come in contact with infected animals or contaminated animal products.
What is inhalation anthrax?
Inhalation anthrax starts primarily in the lymph nodes in the chest before spreading throughout the rest of the body, ultimately causing severe breathing problems and shock. Without treatment, inhalation anthrax is almost always fatal. However, with aggressive treatment, about 55% of patients survive.
Who caused the anthrax attacks in 2001?
Scientist Bruce Ivins
FBI Details Science Tying Ivins To Anthrax Mailings
August 19, 2008 * The FBI has revealed new details about the scientific findings that led them to suspect Army scientist Bruce Ivins was responsible for the 2001 anthrax mailings that killed five people. Ivins committed suicide last month.
How many died from anthrax?
Five Americans
Five Americans were killed and 17 were sickened in what became the worst biological attacks in U.S. history. The ensuing investigation by the FBI and its partners—code-named “Amerithrax”—has been one of the largest and most complex in the history of law enforcement.
Who is Paul Keim?
During the 2001 anthrax investigations, my lab was called upon to play a critical role in providing the US military and intelligence community with cutting edge assays for biological weapons. We successfully delivered assays that were far superior to the assays used previously and available through the military labs. This was critical to both the investigations and the clean-up efforts on the east coast.
Why was Paul Keim surprised that it was the Ames strain?
We were surprised it was the Ames strain. And it was chilling at the same time, because the Ames strain is a laboratory strain that had been developed by the U.S. Army as a vaccine-challenge strain. We knew that it was highly virulent. In fact, that’s why the Army used it, because it represented a more potent challenge to vaccines that were being developed by the U.S. Army.
What is a bioterrorism?
A biological attack, or bioterrorism, is the intentional release of viruses, bacteria, or other germs that can sicken or kill people, livestock, or crops. Bacillus anthracis, the bacteria that causes anthrax, is one of the most likely agents to be used in a biological attack.
Was mail laced with anthrax?
In 2001, powdered anthrax spores were deliberately put into letters that were mailed through the U.S. postal system. Twenty-two people, including 12 mail handlers, got anthrax, and five of these 22 people died.
What did the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1996 do?
The 1996 Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act established a new court charged only with hearing cases in which the government seeks to deport aliens accused of engaging in terrorist activity based on secret evidence submitted in the form of classified information.
Where did the Ames strain of anthrax come from?
The Ames strain has been traced to an anthrax culture sent from the National Veterinary Services Laboratories in Ames to the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases in 1980. The Army identified it as a separate strain and named it “Ames.”
What diseases are at USAMRIID?
USAMRIID continues to be a leader in developing animal models for a variety of biological threat agents and validating that these models adequately reproduce critical aspects of human disease.
…
Anthrax.
Botulism.
Plague.
Ebola and Marburg hemorrhagic fevers.
Hantavirus.
Ricin toxin.
Who is Steven Hatfill?
Fired in 1995 for violating lab procedures.
Got hired by a Government contractor. Lost security clarence for that job.
Why did Bruce Ivins spread anthrax?
Supposedly Ivins perpetrated the attacks out of an anxiety that his supervisors planned to end Ivins’ anthrax research and reassign him to work on another pathogen. According to this explanation, Ivins mailed the letters to ensure anthrax research remained a priority at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute.
