Response to bio attacks can traumatize - expert

Reuters

July 18, 2000

ATLANTA (Reuters) - Thousands of people in the United States may have been traumatized by overly aggressive responses to suspected biological attacks involving deadly  agents such as anthrax, a researcher said Monday.

Dr. Leonard Cole of Rutgers University, who studied 40 of 324 threats of a biological attack recorded by the FBI between 1997 and 1999, said responses by local police, fire and emergency medical personnel varied widely. ``More than 13,000 people were presumed victims for at least several hours,'' Cole said in research presented at an International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases meeting in Atlanta.

Most of the incidents involved letters sent in the mail that falsely claimed to carry anthrax. The targets included schools, churches, courthouses, abortion clinics, anti-abortion groups, and even FBI offices, Cole said.

In 27 of the 40 incidents Cole studied, people who might have been exposed to a toxin were undressed, sometimes in public, or scrubbed with a solution containing bleach. In half of the incidents, people were hospitalized or given antibiotics.

``Interviews with officials and victims indicated that many victims were psychologically or physically traumatized. Some suffered allergic reactions to bleach,'' Cole said.

Most of the cases occurred before a U.S. bioterrorism task force issued recommendations last year that said it is sufficient to wash the exposed skin of most potential victims with soap and water.

Cole urged adoption of a standardized reporting system for such incidents. He also called for tools that can swiftly determine if a threat is real.

``More rapid lab analysis to disconfirm contamination by a biological agent should be made available,'' Cole said.