Anthrax patients' ailments lingering (symptoms identical to stachy poisoning)

[Guest guest]

(Note: The CDC is not studying and following up on long-term health

problems with anthrax victims just like they are not following up with those

of us poisoned by toxic molds. Anyone see a pattern here??)

http://www.msnbc.com/news/741310.asp?0bl=-0

Anthrax patients' ailments lingering

Fatigue, memory loss afflict most survivors of October attacks

Hose at home in Winchester, Virginia. He has not fully recovered from

his bout with inhalation anthrax.

By Lena H. Sun

THE WASHINGTON POST

April 20 - Six months after inhaling anthrax spores, several of the mail

workers who survived the deadly disease have yet to make a full recovery and

are experiencing serious fatigue and memory loss.

IN INTERVIEWS with five of the six survivors of inhalational anthrax, four

spoke of frequent exhaustion. Only one person, a 74-year-old Florida man,

has returned to work. But others said they require daily naps after the

slightest exertion. They and their families say they have also noticed

marked problems with memory and concentration.

" The question is, why aren't these people back to normal? " said Mark

Galbraith, an infectious disease specialist in Virginia who is treating one

of the survivors.

The extent of the problems has highlighted for Galbraith and other

physicians how little is known by the medical community about this illness

and the potency of the toxins.

<'I'M JUST SO TIRED'

Eleven Americans, from Florida to Connecticut, contracted the inhaled

form of anthrax after a rash of terrorist mailings to politicians and media

outlets. Five died, including two postal workers from the Brentwood Road NE

mail processing center in Washington. Six were treated and survived; of

those, three live in the Washington area.

" I'm just so tired, " said Hose, 59, of Winchester, Va., who was

released from the hospital in November after 16 days of intensive treatment.

Hose worked at the State Department diplomatic mail facility in Sterling,

where, investigators believe, he inhaled anthrax spores from a letter

addressed to Sen. J. Leahy (D-Vt.) that was accidentally routed to

the facility. He is trying to regain his strength through physical therapy

but spends most of his time watching television because he has energy to do

little else, he says.

Bradley Perkins, the top anthrax expert at the federal Centers for

Disease Control and Prevention, said in a telephone interview this week that

the CDC is aware of " complaints and concerns " among some of the inhalation

survivors. At the moment, the CDC is not doing any systematic study of their

health, he said, except for collecting blood samples to develop better

vaccines.

" We're just now approaching the kind of time period where one would

normally expect a full recovery, " he said. But " a number of survivors have

not returned to their normal daily activities.

FORMAL STUDY CONSIDERED

" We have concern about the level " of their recovery, he added, and

the CDC is " actively discussing " whether to conduct a formal study of their

symptoms.

Perkins said memory loss and fatigue could be results of the

infection. Anthrax produces toxins, " and some could have impact on nerve

tissues, " he said. It is also possible that survivors are experiencing some

form of post-traumatic stress syndrome, he added.

Until the outbreak last year, inhalational anthrax was almost always

fatal. Consequently, little is known about the experience of survivors or

whether the infection has long-term effects.

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The recent inhalational cases are unlike the other few dozen

recorded in the United States in the last half-century, most of which were

contracted by workers exposed to contaminated animal hides.

Medical experts know that severe illness can have unexpected

emotional consequences in addition to physical effects. That could be

particularly true in this case because the anthrax attacks were an act of

terrorism accompanied by intense media attention. Also, no one has been

arrested in the attacks, which may cause the survivors more stress.

TRAINS OF THOUGHT DERAILED

Leroy Richmond, 57, one of two Brentwood postal workers to survive

inhalational anthrax, discovered by talking with a postal worker from New

Jersey that he was not the only survivor having memory problems. Norma

Wallace, 57, who worked in the facility in Hamilton Township, N.J., and was

hospitalized with inhalational anthrax for 18 days, told him she would often

lose her train of thought in the middle of a conversation.

Richmond's wife, , had noticed the same thing in her husband.

" We know he's getting old, " she said, " but it's not normal for him, in the

middle of a conversation, to say he can't remember what the questions were. "

Until he talked to Wallace, Richmond says, he was reluctant to

acknowledge that he was having memory trouble. " I was trying to be brave and

strong, " he said. On his doctor's orders, Richmond is now undergoing a

series of memory tests.

The other Brentwood postal employee who survived inhalational

anthrax, a man in his fifties, wishes to remain unidentified, said a

spokeswoman for the U.S. Postal Service.

The only survivor who appears to have made a full recovery is Ernesto

Blanco, 74, who returned in February to his job handling mail for American

Media Inc. at its new office building in Boca Raton, Fla.

" I feel good, " Blanco said in an interview. He said he did not

experience fatigue or memory problems. " I remember everything. I feel 100

percent fine. Honest to God, you won't believe me, but I almost feel better

than before. "

LIMITED ASSISTANCE, IF ANY

'That's one reason why I stick with school. It forces me to focus and try

to remember.'

- NORMA WALLACE

postal worker hospitalized with inhalational anthrax for 18 days

The five other survivors, however, are recovering at home, receiving a

portion of their pay in worker's compensation benefits. Unlike the families

of those who died or were injured in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New

York, at the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania, the anthrax survivors and their

families have received limited or no financial assistance from private

charities.

Richmond says he wants to go back to his Postal Service job as soon

as his doctor says he is ready. On his doctor's orders, he takes a walk each

morning, but he needs to stop halfway through at a nearby gas station to

rest. After returning home, " I'm so tired I have to take a nap, " he said.

Postal worker Wallace, of Willingboro, N.J., said she has to do her

chores in 20-minute segments so she can rest. Wallace believes she breathed

anthrax spores that were in at least one of three tainted letters officials

say passed through the Hamilton Township facility.

Like some of the other survivors, she also has joint pain - in her

shoulders, ankles and hips - that was not there before the illness. She

doesn't know when she will be able to go back to work, but she has resumed

her correspondence classes for a bachelor's degree in literature because she

thinks it might help her memory.

" That's one reason why I stick with school, " she said. " It forces me

to focus and try to remember. "

NIGHTMARES AND RAGE

Wallace's co-worker Jyotsna Patel, of Princeton Junction, N.J., also

has chronic fatigue, joint pain and memory loss. Before she got sick, she

said, " my joints never hurt, and I never sit down for one minute -- I'm so

active. " This spring, her doctor told her, " Hey, you also have the same

symptoms like the other patients,' " recalled her husband, Ramesh Patel.

She was hospitalized for only eight days and did not receive an

inhalational anthrax diagnosis until the day she was discharged. When she

first returned home, her husband said, she would often wake up in the middle

of the night screaming from nightmares. The nightmares still occur, but less

often, he said.

" The frustration is she is not getting better at the rate she should

be, " he said, adding that he is worried she might have suffered permanent

damage. But what makes him " really mad, " he said, is that " they still

haven't been able to find out who did this. "

Staff writer Brown contributed to this report.

© 2002 The Washington Post Company