Anthrax Scare Could Have Been Scarier
The rapid use of antibiotics by thousands of people cooled the hot spots in last fall's anthrax-by-mail terrorist attacks, holding down the inhaled infections and deaths, researchers say.It could have been much worse than the 11 cases of inhaled anthrax and the five deaths, said Ron Brookmeyer, first author of a study appearing Friday in the journal Science."We found that the antibiotics cut the cases by half," said Brookmeyer. "That's good news. They were able to have a rapid response with the antibiotics and limit the disease." Submitted for your pestilence and rumor of war files.