MEDICAL DEFENSE AGAINST BIOLOGICAL MATERIAL

File: 121096_sep96_decls28_0008.txt
Page: 0008
Total Pages: 23

Subject: MEDICAL DEFENSE AGAINST BIOLOGICAL MATERIAL                     

Unit: OTSG        

Parent Organization: HSC         

Box  ID: BX003202

Folder Title: DOCUMENT LISTING FOR PROJECT BADGER                                                             

Document Number:          3

Folder Seq  #:          1





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              be confused with a wide variety of viral, bacterial, and
              fungal infectious diseases. Progression over 2-3 days with
              the sudden development of severe respiratory distress
              followed by shock and death in 24-36 hours in essentially
              all untreated cases eliminates diagnoses other than
              inhalation anthrax. The presence of a widened mediastinum
              an chest X-ray, in particular, should alert one to the
              diagnosis. Other suggestive findings include chest-wall
              edema, hemorrhagic pleural effusions, and hemorrhagic
              meningitis. Other diagnoses to consider include aerosol
              exposure to SEB; but in this case, onset would be more rapid
              after exposure (if known), and no prodrome would be evident
              prior to onset of severe respiratory symptoms. Mediastinal
              widening on chest X-ray will also be absent. Patients with
              plague or tularemia pneumonia will have pulmonary
              infiltrates and clinical signs of pneumonia (usually absent
              in anthrax).

              . Specific Laboratory Diagngsis. Bacillus anthracia will
              be readily detecable by blood culture with routine media.
              Smears and cultures of pleural fluid and abnormal
              cerebrospinal fluid may also be positive. Impression smears
              of mediastinal lymph nodes and spleen from fatal cases
              should be positive. Toxemia is sufficient to permit anthrax
              toxin detection in blood by immunoassays, and such assays
              will be available in field-deployed laboratories (see
              Section III).

                 r     Almost all cases of inhalation anthrax where
           treatment was begun after patients were symptomatic have been
           fatal, regardless of treatment. Historically, penicillin has
 regarded as the treatment of choice, with 2 million units
           given intravenously every 2 hours. Tetracycline and
           erythromycin have been recommended in penicillin-sensitive
           patients. The vast majority of anthrax strains are sensitive
           injury to penicillin. However, penicillin-resistant strains
           exist naturally, and one has been recovered from a fatal human
           case. Moreover, it is not difficult to induce resistance to
           penicillin, tetracycline, erythromycin, and many other
           antibiotics through laboratory manipulation of organisms. All
           naturally-occurring strains tested to date have been sensitive
           to erythromycin, chloramphenical, gentamicin, and
           ciprofloxacin. In the current setting, treatment should be
           instituted at the earliest sign of disease with ciproflo-acin



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Document 23 f:/Week-36/BX003202/DOCUMENT LISTING FOR PROJECT BADGER/medical defense against biological material:12069615355829
Control Fields 17
File Room = sep96_declassified
File Cabinet = Week-36
Box ID = BX003202
Unit = OTSG
Parent Organization = HSC
Folder Title = DOCUMENT LISTING FOR PROJECT BADGER
Folder Seq # = 1
Subject = MEDICAL DEFENSE AGAINST BIOLOGICAL MATERIAL
Document Seq # = 3
Document Date =
Scan Date =
Queued for Declassification = 01-JAN-1980
Short Term Referral = 01-JAN-1980
Long Term Referral = 01-JAN-1980
Permanent Referral = 01-JAN-1980
Non-Health Related Document = 01-JAN-1980
Declassified = 06-DEC-1996