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06-05-2004, 04:21 AM
<font size=3>Deaths Blamed on Mysterious Microbe with Anthrax Genes </font>
By Kate Ruder
Posted:
June 4, 2004
Last year two hospital patients from different cities in Texas died of severe pneumonia that appeared to be caused by inhalation anthrax. Yet neither patient was infected with the bacterium that causes anthrax, Bacillus anthracis.
Instead, DNA tests indicated that both patients became infected by another species of bacteria that carried the lethal anthrax genes. The bacterium, called Bacillus cereus, typically causes mild food poisoning.
When the Texas cases came to light, researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, were sequencing the genome of a strain of B. cereus isolated from a man in Louisiana who, in 1994, developed severe anthrax-like symptoms.
The researchers now report that B. cereus can indeed carry lethal genes of the anthrax bacterium. The Texas and Louisiana patients were all metal workers and appeared to have inhaled the dangerous bacteria, although scientists do not know how.
These are the first cases in which anthrax genes have been discovered in an organism other than B. anthracis, and the findings raise concerns about the prevalence of the previously unknown pathogen—and our preparedness to detect and respond to it in the event of a biological attack.
For example, tests used to detect anthrax during a suspected bioterrorism incident might not pick up the equally pathogenic bacteria B. cereus.
More on this Story (http://www.genomenewsnetwork.org/articles/2004/06/04/anthrax_genes.php)
By Kate Ruder
Posted:
June 4, 2004
Last year two hospital patients from different cities in Texas died of severe pneumonia that appeared to be caused by inhalation anthrax. Yet neither patient was infected with the bacterium that causes anthrax, Bacillus anthracis.
Instead, DNA tests indicated that both patients became infected by another species of bacteria that carried the lethal anthrax genes. The bacterium, called Bacillus cereus, typically causes mild food poisoning.
When the Texas cases came to light, researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, were sequencing the genome of a strain of B. cereus isolated from a man in Louisiana who, in 1994, developed severe anthrax-like symptoms.
The researchers now report that B. cereus can indeed carry lethal genes of the anthrax bacterium. The Texas and Louisiana patients were all metal workers and appeared to have inhaled the dangerous bacteria, although scientists do not know how.
These are the first cases in which anthrax genes have been discovered in an organism other than B. anthracis, and the findings raise concerns about the prevalence of the previously unknown pathogen—and our preparedness to detect and respond to it in the event of a biological attack.
For example, tests used to detect anthrax during a suspected bioterrorism incident might not pick up the equally pathogenic bacteria B. cereus.
More on this Story (http://www.genomenewsnetwork.org/articles/2004/06/04/anthrax_genes.php)