When I read the
diary by John West regarding his friend who attended the D.C. anti war rally on September 24 who is now sick, I thought I'd take a closer look into the reports regarding detection of
Francisella tularensis during the anti-War rally, which causes Tularemia, and what info is out there regarding the disease itself.
What I found is interesting, to say the least.
Read on...
The biosensors that detected the presence of
Francisella tularensis during the anti-war rally were part of the Dept. of Homeland Security's BioWatch program, a detailed article on which can be seen
here.
As that article notes, in the summer of 2003, BioWatch sensors detected Francisella tularensis in Houston. But, "health officials concluded there had been no [terrorist] attack. Instead, the sensor had detected tiny amounts of F. tularensis naturally present in the environment. Although F. tularensis was known to be endemic in Texas, this was the first time it was detected in an aerosol sample."
Curious, eh? It gets better in this article which notes that BioWatch is set to detect rabbit fever because it is considered a Category A pathegon, i.e., a terrorist favorite. No human cases were reported after the detection in Houston.
And, here's more info from that article that is surprising: "In the 1990s, an average of 124 human cases of the disease were reported annually in the United States."
So, this is a very rare disease in nature, as is confirmed by the CDC on their website Q&As which also notes: "Most cases occur in the south-central and western states. Nearly all cases occur in rural areas, and are caused by the bites of ticks and biting flies or from handling infected rodents, rabbits, or hares. Cases also resulted from inhaling airborne bacteria and from laboratory accidents."
In addition, there's this: "Q. Why are we concerned about tularemia being used as a bioweapon?
A. Francisella tularensis is highly infectious. A small number of bacteria (10-50 organisms) can cause disease. If Francisella tularensis were used as a bioweapon, the bacteria would likely be made airborne so they could be inhaled. People who inhale the bacteria can experience severe respiratory illness, including life-threatening pneumonia and systemic infection, if they are not treated."
So, the question then becomes: is Tauleremia something that occurs in D.C.? Well, I found three reported cases, but they were a long time ago, and not from walking around inside the city. Look here:
"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."
This article (which has more great information on the disease, and how it's DNA code was cracked at the beginning of this year), notes that "one outbreak in Martha's Vineyard, US, in 2000 was probably triggered by someone running over a rabbit carcass while mowing a lawn. The airborne bacteria infected two people."
So, did anyone step on an infected rabbit while marching or play with an infected rabbit carcas during the rally? Seems unlikely, but Homeland Security officials have stressed that there is no connection to terror in the readings from D.C.: "'There is no known nexus to terror or criminal behavior. We believe this to be environmental,' said Russ Knocke, spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security."
In fact, Gregg Pane of the D.C. Department of Health theorized "tularemia bacteria, which occur naturally in soil, might have been kicked up by the thousands of feet stomping on the Mall grounds that day."
I believe, though, that this is misleading. According to Homeland Security's own Q&A's, "Q. How long can Francisella tularensis exist in the environment?
A. Francisella tularensis can remain alive for weeks in water and soil." It is not something that is naturally, i.e., always present in the soil. Especially in soil in urban areas, since this is a disease that is almost exclusively found in rural areas (as far as human infections go). It ends up in the soil after an animal which has died from the disease "takes a dirt nap" as they say.
Also consider the fact that there have been hundreds (?) of protests in Washington, D.C., some with even more people "stomping on the Mall grounds." Why has this not been recorded earlier? Why has there been no cases of infection from downtown D.C. (as far as I know)?
Think about it this way: for this official's theory to work, seems to me you would need, in only weeks before the protests, a large enough number of animals infected with Francisella tularensis to die on the paths that people are walking on for them to kick up the remaining bacterium in large enough quantities to set off the BioWatch alarms. Oh, and how hard, and how much do large groups of people have to stomp to cause a bacteria that is lying in soil to go airborne in sufficient quantities to set off bioterror sensors, anyway?
Doesn't make much sense, does it?
So, maybe we need to reconsider this whole thing. What we have here is a disease carried by animals, that is highly infectious, but appears in humans less than 200 times per year, predominately in the south and southwest, and almost exclsuively found in rural areas due to tick bites or handling infected animals, that was recorded by six sensors in different parts of Washington, D.C. The only other time it was recorded in aerosol form was in Houston in 2003 even though it does not usually travel around in that form.
Meanwhile, government officials have immediately downplayed terrorism fears by using a misleading characterization of the nature of the bacteria detected.
Now, I'm not wearing a tin foil hat. I'm not going to accuse the government of attacking protestors with a bioweapon, and then covering it up. But, it does seem possible that some sort of aerosol attack did occur on the war protestors, by someone, yet this possibility is being dismissed out of hand.
If John West's friend, or anyone else is sick, I strongly urge them to seek medical attention, if not just for their own health, but so that we can determine for sure what exactly happened in D.C. that weekend.