Dr. Reid Newsletter 10/13/01: I researched Anthrax in a 1943 Textbook of Medicine.

But first:   Come with me to a beautiful place:   Yesterday I was concentrating on a Daisey in the front yard, beautiful with sunshine bathing the yellow center and the delicate white petals, somehow for an instant it captured my full attention, nothing else existed for a moment, and a small miracle happened. Now, it was a tiny little, almost silly miracle, but a miracle never the less. Could this be what is meant by concentrating on the Lotus in ancient lore? In the flower we see God's grace, and an art which cannot be duplicated by man. I think, for a moment we touch the ultimate goodness and love of the Devine.

A safe place in God's hands, always.

Linda's cousin E-mailed us with a report that every Tuesday she was going to the World Trade Center and using some facility there (I think a library) to do family tree research, just for fun. Sept. 11th for the first time in a year a very important meeting interfered with her pleasure trip.  She is a Nursing supervisor for a large Jersey hospital and everyone knows she cherishes her Tuesday expeditions to New York, so meetings are generally scheduled on any day but Tuesday, but this was the single exceptional situation and she had to attend this meeting in New Jersey on Tues. Sept. 11th, 2001. "Not even a sparrow falls without the Lord knowing." So, Linda's cousin is with us, with some work still unfinished apparently, some more work to do, simply not her time to leave us.

I researched Anthrax in a 1943 Textbook of Medicine.

I do not like the NEWS shows. They are feeding us sensational emotional and in some cases mis-leading information. I researched Anthrax in a 1943 Textbook of Medicine. This was an excellent text since America was finishing up the second World War and many exotic diseases were being studied because our troops were far over-seas. Modern treatment is with Cipro or Doxycycline (a tetracycline family anti-biotic). It is important that we do not use up our stores of these modern drugs preventing something which is not an immediate threat. For people actually exposed to Anthrax the antibiotics become critical. For people who are not exposed the antibiotics are a waste of time unless true exposure is proven. So I was interested in what the treatment was prior to these modern miracle drugs and also what perspective the historical doctors might have.

11/06/01 Update:  The Anthrax being employed as a weapon along the East Coast is a "weapons grade designer Anthrax" which differs from the "Natural Anthrax" of yester-year.

So let's examine the old natural anthrax and its character and compare it to the "Designer Format":

#1. Natural Anthrax bacterium is big and clunky, easy to filter out, and it dies in air, it hates oxygen.   For the actual designer germ form this is also true, the designer spores however are more resistant to environmental factors and apparently are coated with bentonite to shield them from UV and Oxygen, and also VERY TINY to make them float like smoke in the air.

#2. Natural Anthrax when faced with oxygen changes into a "spore" which really is a little tightly wrapped hard case seed type of thing about the size of a large virus. This is not too difficult to filter out either, and a simple surgical face mask should suffice. (available at any drug store, shopko, target, Walmart store). Goggles would be good too since the spore can enter through the wet surface of the eye.  Definitely wash hands before touching eyes (which is ALWAYS good advice since colds and flus love the wet eye surfaces too.)  The actual designer germ form behaves the same BUT comes as a spore form to begin with, and then changes into a germ form only when in a friendly environment.

#3. The spore form of Natural Anthrax MUST come from a dead animal hide or fluid from a carcass and can infect the skin, the gut, or the lungs of man.  For the actual designer spore form it takes a millions of dollars weapons grade laboratory or small factory and Phd. level brains to produce it without killing all the workers involved.  Air locks, decontam. stations, special production line.  This designer stuff is expensive!

#4 On the skin the Natural format anthrax makes an obvious boil type lesion with a dark purple center.  This forms in a day or so, spreads very slowly, become a wide spread ulcerated rash messy mess, but rarely fatal even if untreated, VERY subject to modern antibiotics, temporary ugly rash-boils type thing, but really not a big problem.

For the actual designer germ the skin contamination situation is about the same but a bit more resistant to antibiotics.

#5 In the gut the Natural form if untreated is slow but does carry a 20% fatality rate if UNTREATED, if treated with antibiotics prognosis is good with 1% fatality rate usually involving people with reduced immune capacity (aids, severe uncontrolled diabetes, severe alcoholism), again very very manageable.

For the actual designer germ the gut contamination situation is about the same, but due to its designer tiny size it is more likely to enter the lungs as it passes downward toward the gut.

#6 Natural Anthrax in the lungs:  The prognosis is less sure with often 90% fatality rate, BUT it has to get into the lungs, and historicial text indicates fairly concentrated amounts have to get into the lungs - like one might experience working in a leather tanning factory which had little ventilation. Otherwise the spore is caught in the nose and mucus membranes of the sinuses and the person usually seeks Medical attention for bleeding sinus infection LONG before the germ gets into the lungs. In the sinuses the spore changes into the big clunky germ form and then the germ form produces boils and rash type problems just like the skin affectation.

For the actual designer germ the lung contamination situation is about the same, but the probability of entering the lung tissues is very high due to designer size.

The actual NEW designer spore is apparently sized just right to get to the lungs and embed there, also it is very light-floats in air, and even a mouthful might very well cause some percentage to float up into the sinuses and then down into the lungs.

#7 REMEMBER Natural anthrax takes at least 30 days and more typically 60 days to become dangerous even if you suck a pound of spores into one lung, so there is quite a bit of time to act effectively to kill it.  The NEW designer form seems to take only about one week of incubation and then the downward course is very rapid IF THE LUNGS are infected..  American males being a bit on the heroic side about health matters may wait too long once symptoms start to seek testing.  Don't be a hero, if you feel deep illness, deep sick feeling, vomit, diarhea (signs of systemic illness overwhelming the defenses), get tested.  Don't let some HMO doc put you off either, insist upon testing right then and there, pay cash if necessary.

#8 The active big clunky Natural germ form is NOT MOTILE. This means it does not swim around, so even in the body it spreads through fluid flows and is very slow.

For the actual designer germ the situation is about the same.

#9The spore form of Natural does no damage itself, but must change into the big clunky germ form before it causes any body damages. For the actual designer germ the situation is about the same.

#10. The germ form has a mucopolysacharide coating, similar to Tuberculosis or Leprosy. This is the typical "army tank" defense of a germ with a thick armor coating. This coating is why the white blood cells have trouble killing it.  For the actual designer germ the situation is about the same.

#11 THE HERB "KOTU COLA" used for decades in India against Leprosy and TB rips the coating off the germ making it a less difficult target for the white blood cells and provides an extremely effective aid to antibiotic treatments. (20 drops Kotu-Cola extract in 8 oz. water 3X/day for 90 days.  For the actual designer germ the situation is about the same.

#12 The historical doctors had a serum preparation which was able to save even many people who were in the lung infection stage. We don't have this serum available anymore, but could make it.

#13 The historical doctors had an arsenical chemotherapy which saved many people who had entered the pulmonary stage long before modern antibiotics. We don't use arsenic as a chemo anymore.

#14 The historical doctors had considerable successes with sulfa drugs (which I believe is a component of Cipro today - check this - but I think Cipro is sort of sulfa AND penecillin family together in one package).

SO, O.K.? I hope this dispells some fears and gives YOU some tools to prepare just in case somehow you come in contact with this, which is unlikely, really, since Anthrax is hard to handle, spores intended for lung infections must be a dry dust (so rain ruins the possibility of transmission) and are expensive.  Chlorox is an oxidizer agent so chlorine in the water supply makes water transmission a poor choice. Muddy warm ground can hold the spores, but bare feet might be the only danger, and that danger would be skin infection, not the fatal type lung problems, certainly no one is going to breathe in mud! AND IT IS NOT CONTAGIOUS MAN TO MAN. You can't catch it from a simple sneeze. Man can carry it accidently on clothing though, so clothes must be removed and burned if accidently contaminated. The probability of a nationwide plague is nil. So, what's really going on? A little nasty fellow or two apparently is in possession of some VERY EXPENSIVE designer Anthrax and is using it judiciously (he or she thinks) to spread fear.   Mailing a little powder here and there to selected PUBLIC figures to instill panic in as many people as possible. Since anthrax powder spores can last 15 years, he may have come into this country years ago with a little supply of seed powders which he (or she) is now carefully using to cause trouble. Kind of small, twisted, and just pitiful isn't it? So, I urge you too to research the NEWS, and encourage your neighbors to challenge the NEWS, or just plain stay away from the sensation oriented NEWS. I urge you to look long and carefully at the flowers and note the truth and beauty there in every blossom, every miracle of truth. In their race for "ratings" I think the NEWS shows are hurting Americans' attitudes, punching at our traditional "CAN DO" philosophy, and frankly I resent what they are doing, and I hope you feel resentment toward scare stories and sensationalism too.

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