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Show 6 THE DAILY UTAH CHRONICLE WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 17. 2001 THE MAGIC OF The Ins and Outs of The Deadly Anthrax MAKE-BELIEV- E: JESS FOLSTER The Daily Free Press With recent scares at outlet in Florida and at the NBC Studios in New York, Americans are becoming more curious about the deadly bacterium known as anthrax. Recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a warning for people to be on the lookout for any suspicious packages or letters. Packages with many stamps, poorly written titles, stains and words like "personal" or "confidential" are among items of which people should be wary. If you come into contact with an envelope with a suspicious white powder, the CDC recommends you cover the spilled contents immediately with a cloth or piece of paper. Leave the room and close the door to prevent others from entering. Next, wash your hands with soap and water to prevent spreading bacteria. Then call your local police. David Ozonoff, chairman of the Environmental Health Department at the Boston University School of Public Health, tried to clear up the misinformation. BOSTON a media J student Mario Mendez pretends to make a phone call during a rehearsal for the improv comedy group Knock Your Socks Off, which now performs at Trolley Square Live every weekend. U f""XJ CSV l A Anthrax spores are invisible to the naked eye, he said. The white powder that we all have been seeing on television lately is just a medium to transport the deadly substance. "You can't look out for it," Ozonoff said. "It's colorless, odorless and tasteless." Anthrax is not contagious and can be treated with antibiotics, according to the CDC. The CDC also said too cases of antibiotics were shipped to the scene of last week's Florida cases. One thousand employees of the Palm Beach County newspaper were tested. Anthrax usually comes in two forms. The kind found in Florida recently was the inhalation form of anthrax. Ozonoff said this form is hard to treat because the spores can be resistant to antibiotics in the later stages. The inhalation form is contracted when the spores are inhaled. Small spores then get caught in the upper respiratory tract and larger spores go deep into lungs. Then, defense mechanisms called macrophages engulf the bacteria and eat them. But the larger ones travel with the macrophages to the lymph nodes. These spores start to grow in the lymph nodes, where they make toxins. These toxins spread throughout the body and lead to organ failure. Most people die of shock, which is a drop in blood pressure, Ozonoff said. f "2 IS! The form recently found in an envelope addressed to NBC's Tom Brokaw is cutaneous. This is the most common form, Ozonoff said, and it creates a black scab on the victim's skin when the spores enter an open cut or sore on the skin. It has a 20 percent death rate without treatment. "You almost certainly recover," Ozonoff said. Symptoms of exposure to anthrax initially include basic aches and pains, so it is difficult to distinguish from the flu. According to the CDC, symptoms take seven days to show G 3500 up. ACRES OF VARIETY SPREAD OVER 8 "That doesn't help anybody because that's like anything else. Later on, you get pains in the chest and difficulty breathing," Ozonoff said. "It's a very difficult organism to weaponize against." The term "anthrax" comes from the word "anthracite," or hard coal. It occurs naturally in soil, Ozonoff said, but not in New England or in Florida. It primarily affects animals. Because of this, Ozonoff said he thinks the recent outbreaks were caused by either terrorists or people trying to instill fear into a nation already on edge after the terrorist attacks of Sept. n. "The recent cases of anthrax are clearly deliberate just to flip people out," Ozonoff said. "But you can't freak out every time you see a white powder. I wouldn't have anybody worrying about it." This might be easier said than done, but Ozonoff has scientific facts to back him up. "It takes tens of thousands of spores to even affect you, and your body has its own defenses against it," he said. MOUNTAINS! y ' - ? 1 Since The Canyons is not an Olympic Venue, access to the entire resort will be wide open. You will be able to drive from any direction into the newly paved parking lot all season long. No hassles. HEW FOR 20012002: Parking Lot, Adjacent to Cabriolet Paved With Asphalt Addition of a triple chairlift to acres of new terrain I access 25 Snowmaking expansion to Harmony trail from Dreamscape down New rail features added to the Terrain Mark on Red Hawk Through November 4, 2001 a t Between November December 2, 2001 $419 5, 2001 and 'v U VISITWWW.THECANY0I1S.COM flfe CONTACT YOUR COLLEGE SALES REP TO PURCHASE YOUR PASS TODAY. It i " t ! V 11 COLLEGE SEASON PASSES , I J f WIRE |