Reply #9: Could a Moderator Please Consider Combining the Tularemia Threads?

[Dunvegan]

We've got a lot of them and a lot of links and background information, but it's scatterd through about four or five threads now.

There's a gumbo of different information, and in different threads.

It would be nice to see it all in one place to help us sort out the incoming data.

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http://www.watchfarscape.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-17250.htmlhttp://www.watchfarscape.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-17250.html

Tularemia is the one pathogen that has shown false-positives in city-wide air sensors.

Quoted from the Washington Post - 11-14-2003

"Homeland defense officials yesterday partially lifted the cloak of secrecy surrounding a network of outdoor air-sampling sensors in 31 cities that is designed to warn officials within hours of any attempt by terrorists to release deadly microbes into the atmosphere.

*snip*

"It has had no "false positives," or cases of labs mistakenly concluding that pathogens were present.

"But an unnecessary alarm was raised last month in Houston. Repeated lab tests detected the presence of tularemia, a deadly pathogen carried by rabbits. Soon, though, officials concluded there had been no attack.

Instead, the machinery had detected tiny amounts of tularemia naturally present in the atmosphere. Scientists had known tularemia is common in Texas but were not aware that it could be detected in the air. No one fell ill."

(Full article quoted at link above.)

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Earlier outbreak of Tularemia in the DC area

JAMA. 1979 Nov 23;242(21):2315-7

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=573806&dopt=Abstract

Tularemia pneumonia in Washington, DC. A report of three cases with possible common-source exposures.

"In June 1978, three cases of tularemia pneumonia occurred in persons residing in the Washington, DC, area. The patients, all men, became ill three to four days after a brief session training their hunting dogs in an undeveloped wooded area adjacent to a housing complex. One of the dogs, which later died, had captured a wild rabbit during the training session. All three men had handled the rabbit while familiarizing their dogs with the rabbit's scent. The men had no other common exposure that was a likely source of infection."

(Edited to say: It's worth keeping up on how this progresses, but to not panic.

Be prepared, be aware, be self-responsive, and advocate in knowledgeable fashion for yourself in health care environments.

It's a stastically curious event since this one short time span...during the protest...is the only sensor reading we know about reporting a positive for tularemia in DC.)

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Laura Bush was not in attendence at the Book Festival which took plac on the Mall itself, near the protest.

Up to 100,000 meet celebrity authors on Mall
by Alexis Burke
Hatchet Reporter
Published: 9/26/05
http://www.gwhatchet.com/media/paper332/news/2005/09/26/CampusNews/Up.To.100000.Meet.Celebrity.Authors.On.Mall-997742.shtml?norewrite&sourcedomain=www.gwhatchet.com

As the sounds of anti-war activists rose in the background, more than 90 authors spoke to adults and children Saturday at the National Book Festival - just a few hundred yards away from protests.

Organizers said nearly 100,000 people attended the festival and heard from well-known authors such as Thomas Friedman, David McCollough, John Irving and Tom Wolfe. The event, sponsored by the Library of Congress, featured tents sprawled across the Mall focusing on all genres of writing.

*snip*

Hosted by first lady Laura Bush, who did not attend the event but helped promote it, the book festival was meant to encourage reading for all ages. The book festival has become an annual event since its inception five years ago and continues to draw large crowds from all levels of literary passion each year.

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...and a quick, non-sequitor WTF quote from this Thursday, Sept. 29th:

Mayoral candidates face off
Menino and Hennigan showcase political solutions for Boston

By Shannon Barrington
Published: Thursday, September 29, 2005

http://www.dailyfreepress.com/media/paper87/news/2005/09/29/News/Mayoral.Candidates.Face.Off-1003284.shtml

Menino and Hennigan also disagreed on Boston's disaster preparedness.

Menino said he worked with his homeland security director to create an "exodus plan" because of the Democratic National Convention. He said his plan focuses on using city resources to keep Bostonians safe without leaving the city by finding safe locations for citizens.