IAEM-LIST: Anthrax Spores found in Antarctica

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HEY GUYS THOUGHT YOU MIGHT LIKE TO READ THIS !!

CHRIS

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> For those of you who may have had trouble opening the story regarding
> the Antarctica and the anthrax spores, this is from the Calgary Herald.
>
> WELLINGTON (AP) – Anthrax spores have been found in a hut in Antarctica
> used by an English explorer a century ago and since visited by thousands
> of tourists, scientists and a British princess, a heritage group said
> Wednesday.
>
> The spores do not pose a risk to human health, but the hut at Cape Evans
> has been temporarily closed, government officials said.
>
> “Thousands of people have passed through the historic huts since they
> were rediscovered in the late 1940s without any cases of confirmed
> anthrax,” New Zealand's Antarctic Heritage Trust director Nigel Watson
> said.
>
> The traces of anthrax were found recently in a hut that housed ponies
> and mules used by British explorer Robert Falcon Scott in 1912, he said.
>
> Among recent visitors to the small wooden structure was Britain's
> Princess Anne, chairwoman of the British Antarctic Heritage Trust, in
> February.
>
> Watson said there was no evidence of any men on Scott's expedition
> having suffered from anthrax.
>
> Health Ministry spokesman Dr. Douglas Lush said the anthrax may have
> been present in food taken to Antarctica to feed the Manchurian ponies
> and Hamalayan mules Scott used. Anthrax was endemic in Asia at the time.
>
> “Spores . . . don't pose a threat to humans unless they are inhaled in
> large quantities or come in contact with open wounds,” he said.
>
> The fact the spores “may have survived the extreme cold conditions in
> Antarctica (is) not surprising,” Waikato University biology professor
> Roberta Farrell said.
>
> A huge anthrax scare swept the United States and the world in the wake
> of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks last year, when anthrax was mailed to
> members of the U.S. Congress and media organizations.
> © Copyright 2002 The Canadian Press
>
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