Worried that people with flu-like symptoms who fear they may have anthrax will flood hospitals and clinics this year, a federal health official said on Wednesday there are some easily recognizable differences between the two diseases that should help doctors allay patients' fears.
"One of the more helpful things to remember is that among the cases of anthrax that have been seen so far, these cases have not presented with rhinitis or runny nose," said Dr. Keiji Fukuda, a medical epidemiologist at the flu branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
PHOTO: AP
"One of the things for physicians to look out for -- if you develop something which feels like a cold, you have a runny nose, this is very likely to be a cold," he added.
Flu kills 20,000 people in a good year and twice as many in a bad one. But they are usually people known to be at high risk of complications, such as people with weakened immune systems, the frail elderly, cancer patients, and children with asthma.
"Particularly in the fall and winter months lots of people go to the hospital anyway for influenza-like illnesses. We recognize that some hospitals in some cities just get inundated with people coming in for respiratory illnesses," Fukuda said.
This year's flu season may bring even more people into the hospital complaining of symptoms they fear could be anthrax. Since early October, four people have died of inhaled anthrax and 12 others have been infected with either the skin or inhaled form of the disease that looks a lot like the flu at first.
Anthrax symptoms include achy muscles, a headache, a dry cough and a feeling of being deeply tired.
The CDC has on its Internet site, at www.cdc.gov, a Web cast tutorial for doctors who want to learn how to diagnose anthrax, as well as a series of fact sheets.
It is important for them to learn, as untreated cases of inhaled anthrax quickly become deadly. The family of one Washington postal worker who died of anthrax says he was at first treated for flu and sent home.
"In some instances it can be difficult to tell the difference between early inhalational anthrax and flu-like symptoms from other causes," Fukuda said.
One way to screen out patients is by where they live. Anthrax cases so far have been limited to New York, New Jersey, the Washington area and southern Florida.
"There has been an awful lot of attention on those cases," Fukuda said. "Anthrax really has not been diagnosed in most of the country whereas we have seen millions of millions of flu cases."
"It's really important to understand that every year there are tens of millions, if not more, people who develop so-called flu like illness."
Not only are these cases very unlikely to be anthrax, they may not be flu, either. Many cases will be colds, adenovirus infections and other viruses.
Earlier this month a few public health experts suggested that people worried about anthrax should get a flu shot, to rule out at least one possibility. But the CDC has been discouraging this idea.
The CDC says 85 million doses of flu vaccine will be available this year but urge the young and healthy to wait until December to be vaccinated so those most at risk can get their shots first.
They urged the elderly, pregnant women and others at risk of flu complications to get the flu vaccine, but stressed the vaccine would not protect against anthrax. Influenza is caused by a virus and anthrax is caused by bacteria.
"The reason to get vaccinated against influenza is to either prevent ... influenza or, if you get influenza, to decrease the severity of the disease," Fukuda said.
"The vaccine ... is not protective against other viruses and it is not protective against anthrax."
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2