Published Date: 2001-07-15 23:50:00
Subject: PRO/AH> Anthrax, deer, bison, human - USA (Texas) (04)
Archive Number: 20010715.1371
ANTHRAX, DEER, BISON, HUMAN - USA (TEXAS) (04)
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See Also
Anthrax, deer, bison, human - USA (Texas) 20010703.1278Anthrax, deer, bison, human - USA (Texas) (02) 20010707.1306
Anthrax, deer, bison, human - USA (Texas) (03) 20010712.1344
Anthrax, deer - USA (Texas) 20010622.1184
[In the veterinary field it is usual to inject oneself while vaccinating
stock. So somewhat puzzled by the initial account of the second case having
a purplish lesion when he saw his clinician and before he left the country,
and knowing that the Soviets had successfully used their Sterne-type STI
live vaccine for many decades I asked Peter Turnbull, who has more
experience than I with the human disease, for his views on this possible
human vaccine exposure while vaccinating goats in an area not presently
with clinical cases. His reply was as follows: - Mod.MHJ
Date: Sunday, July 15, 2001 1:47 PM
From: Peter Turnbull
It would seem that 99.9 percent of self-vaccinating people don't have a
reaction which leads to them reporting it or needing treatment. There was
that one case before I went to CDC (about 1998) where a woman in the US
injecting a horse had injected herself and had febrile reaction - David
Ashford <dba4@cdc.gov> dealt with that and would remember the details.
I have this letter, undated, but it would have been end of 1999, beginning
of 2000 from Kevin Ellard, then in Western Australia (subsequently moved to
Tasmania), who said of their mass vaccinations "We used 500 ml multi-inject
containers of vaccine produced by Cyanamid-Websters. Vaccination was
routinely undertaken using disposable vaccination guns ... when using this
type of gun, it was not uncommon for the operator to self-inject if the
animal struggles at an inopportune moment. This happened to me on at least
2 occasions without any adverse reaction to the vaccine. On each occasion
the incident was reported and monitored, but no treatment was required."
In the case with the lesion at 10 days, if it is from the vaccine, then
said person will surely have seroreacted. No chance a specimen of lesion
fluid was taken for culture? [The person is due to be bled when he returns
to this country.
Further reflection over a travelling week-end -- you are right, of course,
a large number of people in the eastern hemisphere received deliberate
infection with a analogous cultures (live vaccines in Russia and China). We
don't know about reactions, but I am not aware of purplish lesions .. I
think I will be surprised if it is somehow proved these are Sterne infections.
--
Peter Turnbull
Salisbury, UK
[So on the face of it, the second human case may not turn out to be a
vaccinal response. We will see when the blood results are in. In Sverdlovsk
in 1979 they used the Tblisi STI vaccine and there was a 3 percent reaction
rate among those vaccinated such that the return rate for all 3 injections
was negatively impacted. A few were seriously affected.
In a telephone conference organised by Joe Garrett on Friday Catherine
Tull, TDH veterinary public health officer in Uvalde, said that the disease
had been reported on some 40 ranches. The number of non-reporting ranchers
was believed to be high. The actual count of dead deer is unknown but very
significant. As it had hit during the fawning season counts by the Texas
Parks & Wildlife staff indicated that the death-ratio was about 4 does per
buck. At this time the white-tailed does come together on fawning grounds
which increases the risk of exposure when they already have high
progesterone levels; historically the disease later passes to the bucks
lying out around the does. A number of ranches in the area run their deer
at very high concentrations which has resulted in massive die-offs on these
ranches. It is not known when this epidemic will cease but the incidence of
ranches reporting new outbreaks was now low. Of course, many affected
ranches report ongoing deaths. - Mod.MHJ
................................mhj/es
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