Web article review

The purpose of this review is simply to identify a pertinent story of recent anthrax that could be found in our media today. Recently, an article on CBC news was written titled "Anthrax scare at Atlanta laboratory puts 75 scientists at risk" (2014). This report was actually written on the 19 of Jun so it is very recent. As the title may imply the article (2014) explains, "As many as 75 scientists working in U.S. federal government laboratories in Atlanta may have been exposed to live anthrax bacteria and are being offered treatment to prevent infection" (p.1). The article explains that the event was carried out after a failure in proper transfer procedures failed to inactivate samples of the bacteria. They then transferred these new samples to subsequent CDC labs which were "not equipped to handle live anthrax" (p.1). The exposure occurred on June 13th to which the CDC immediately began preventative treatment. To since the writing of this article, no symptoms have been seen of the illness. As with any upper class bacteria, the FBI launched a full investigation but found, "no evidence of wrongdoing"(p.1). The treatment of these individuals is not different from the typical course of treatment that we have discussed earlier in this blog sequence. The article (2014) reports that, "Around 75 individuals are being offered a 60-day course of treatment with the antibiotic ciprofloxacin as well as an injection with an anthrax vaccine" (p.1). I would have thought that at this point most CDC members who would be at high risk for exposure to these diseases would have already gotten their vaccines but I digress. Dr Paul Meechan, the director of the environmental health and safety compliance office at the CDC had reported that all employees involved in the transfer process and inactivation process were "tier one select agent approved" (p.1). This means that they had already undergone their security checks and were  deemed to be fully capable to cary out such an important task. The biggest issue now it seems (besides insuring treatment) is to ensure that a mishap like this will never happen again. It is far to risky to have this botched transfer occur. While I want to cut them slack and say, "everybody makes mistakes", this mistake may have cost the lives of over 70 people.  As we see, Anthrax remains a prominent discussion in today's media and  its stigma to bioterrorism will make us think twice about a little mistake such as this.

References: 

CBC News (2014, June 19). Anthrax scare at Atlanta laboratory puts 75 scientists at risk - World - CBC News. Retrieved June 20, 2014, from http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/anthrax-scare-at-atlanta-laboratory-puts-75-scientists-at-risk-1.2681388

Media retrieved from: http://blog.copdfoundation.org/copdf-points-to-cdc-report-showing-declines-in-copd-hospitalizations-and-mortality-rate/