Anthrax Exposures Spawn Variety of Products, Surveillance Devices

By Jennifer Larson, NurseZone feature writer

Something besides anthrax spores has spread across portions of the United States: a glut of products and high-tech devices aimed at nervous consumers worried about contracting anthrax and at health care workers who may have to treat anthrax infections.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been busy, swabbing for anthrax spores at places like a Pentagon post office, New Jersey post offices, and a number of Washington, D.C. federal office buildings, while the Environmental Protection Agency considered (and eventually discarded) plans to decontaminate the Hart Senate Office Building with powerful chlorine dioxide gas. 

Meanwhile many companies are using the situation to their advantage, marketing anthrax detection or treatment products to a fearful public. While many of the products are geared toward the consumer, health care professionals are also being inundated with information about anthrax detection and treatment devices. 

The Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche Holding AG has rushed out a genetic test developed by the Mayo Clinic that quickly detects small samples of bacteria, like anthrax. Researchers at institutions like Johns Hopkins University are conducting tests on devices. Even an Italian food import company is getting into the act, announcing that it’s testing a microwave method of killing bacteria in packaged food and mail.

Emergisoft, an Arlington, Texas-based company, has developed a disaster management solutions software package. The software is designed for hospital emergency departments to use in comparing patient symptoms via a network to patient symptoms in other hospitals, allowing a pattern to be identified in the event of the spread of an infectious agent.

Stanford Hospital in California and Health Hero Network Inc. are piloting a similar bioterrorism detection system. The Biothreat Active Surveillance Integrated Information and Communication System, or BASIICS, allows a triage nurse to enter data about a patient’s presenting symptoms, and the information goes directly to a central computer.

The device allows public health officials to monitor patient symptoms and detect emerging patterns of bioterrorism infections, said Eric L. Weiss, MD, an emergency medicine specialist who works with the pilot program at Stanford Hospital. 

“You can survey all hospitals in real time and aggregate that, so you won’t miss those patients because everyone went home at the end of their shift,” said Weiss. “You compare hospital to hospital, day to day, and find patterns much sooner.”

The size of an answering machine, the device sits at the triage station and requires a phone line to connect to a central network to report data, Weiss said. Because identifying patient information is not required, the nurse only enters symptom information, allowing the central network to notice patterns. 

The detection of a pattern can trigger quicker treatments, which can mean the difference between life or death with infections like anthrax.

“A few days delay turns a pretty difficult situation into an extraordinarily difficult public health situation,” Weiss said. “The earlier you begin treatment, the better.”

President George W. Bush has requested more than $1.5billion from Congress for funding for bioterrorism preparation. That could mean a financial boon for companies who develop genuine products.

Tetra Tech Inc. just received two new contracts with the federal government for bioterrorism response work worth about $11 million. The Pasadena-California based company is providing services like sampling, decontamination and terrorism response training.

Proton Laboratories, with its business partner First Austin Company of Las Vegas, is conducting tests on electrolysis water techniques to determine if controlling the pH levels and other properties of water can destroy bacteria, viruses, and spores. The laboratory plans to present its findings to the federal Emergency Management Agency. 

While some of the consumer products are legitimate, many are frauds, according to the Federal Trade Commission and the Council of Better Business Bureaus. 

“You have to be careful to buy from a reputable company,” said Holly Cherico, spokesman for the Better Business Bureau, which is issuing warnings to advise people to carefully evaluate any marketing pitch they encounter.

The advertising pitches and reports roll out constantly. There are sprays, “anti-anthrax” envelopes, home testing kits, and steam sterilizers, all for sale. For the consumer, it’s a matter of caveat emptor, or “let the buyer beware.”

A team of Austrian scientists announced Oct. 31 they created a disinfectant spray to kill anthrax bacteria. The AKH General Hospital in Vienna and the Graz Laboratory for Microbiology and Hospital Hygiene laboratories won’t release the active ingredients of their polymer-based spray, but the Austrian state secretary for health said the spray may be issued soon to the Austrian army, according to Reuters.

St. James Paper Ltd. recently announced it developed a new line of envelopes and shipping cartons that can’t hold a powder, unlike the standard office envelopes bearing anthrax spores that turned up in the offices of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and NBC news anchor Tom Brokaw. The products have been given the name “Safetylope.”

The FTC, in cooperation with the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration, warns consumers to be cautious when ordering any product online from a seller hawking bioterrorism detection or protection devices. The federal agencies caution people not to buy prescription drugs from sites offering to sell them without a prescription or don’t provide access to a registered pharmacist for questions.

The FTC also is telling consumers to avoid making prescription drug purchases from foreign Web sites.

The BBB does not plan to issue a list of fraudulent products or sellers, but it recommends that consumers check with their local BBB about suspicious-sounding online offers and heed the FTC-CDC warnings. 

“There’s just no guarantee that that drug is safe,” Cherico said of purported anthrax treatments and vaccines offered for sale via the Internet.

It’s still worth checking out the company for their address and privacy policies, Cherico added.
The CDC recommends not opening any suspicious packages or letters and published in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report a list of steps to take if a suspicious package arrives in the mail.

And many experts are recommending email as an alternative to snail mail. Even a number of federal agencies, such as the Federal Communications Commission and the Departments of Labor and Transportation, are now encouraging Internet correspondence instead of the postal service.