Six die as suspicions of anthrax mount in northern city (Iraq)

iraq press ^ | 5/12/04

[knak]

Mosul, Iraq Press, May 11, 2004 –Six people have died and many other are taken ill due to a disease whose symptoms doctors say resemble those caused by anthrax, according to hospital sources.

The sources, refusing to be named, said doctors in the Republican Hospital, the largest medical center in northern Iraq, suspect that the victims were exposed to anthrax.

They said a whole wing of the sprawling hospital has been cordoned off as doctors fear the disease might spread to other patients.

The sources said the doctors suspect that a patient brought to hospital two weeks ago was the cause of the disease.

Anthrax spreads quickly and the six patients were said to have caught the disease as they were being treated for other ailments in the hospital.

The patient who the doctors believe brought the anthrax was a shepherd and had already died, the sources said.

The hospital lacks means to battle the deadly disease.

But the medical staff and support personnel have already been inoculated against anthrax, they said.

There is much confusion in the hospital, the sources said.

Hospital officials have declined comment and would not go into details when asked about the causes of the latest deaths.

Iraq had confirmed that it made anthrax in the 1980s along with other germ warfare agents.

The former regime produced weapons-grade dry anthrax powder which it claimed to have unilaterally destroyed.

UN weapons inspectors failed to get conclusive evidence that Iraq had scrapped its biological warfare program on its own.

US-led weapons experts have so far failed to uncover any germ warfare agents.

[genefromjersey]

A similar story-probably the same one-surfaced a few months ago,and turned out NOT to be anthrax. I think they even claimed the disease was contagious. Anthrax isn't-in the ordinary sense. You can get it from the spores,or from eating the meat of an infected animal,but you can't pass it on to someone else.

[cgk]

bflr

[Shermy]

I don't know about the others, but it's interesting the first victim was a shepherd.

[genefromjersey]

That would make sense. Anthrax is quite often associated with wool-and with sheepherders.

[PhilipRick]

Shermy said: "A similar story-probably the same one-surfaced a few months ago,and turned out NOT to be anthrax." Shermy is correct - 'Bacillus anthracis disinformationus' is the real bug.

[pttttt]

bump

[pttttt]

Some old reports, possibly worth revisiting.

[cookcounty]

"Six Iraqis died last week of a serious skin disease, which workers at the Republican hospital in Mosul, 400 kilometres north of Baghdad, said looks like the anthrax, "

OK, so a shepherd could get anthrax from a sheep. What accounts for the other 5 deaths? It can't spread person-to-person and yet 6 are dead (since MOST of the time it doesn't kill, probably dozens of others sick). What could account for so many catching it simultaneously?

[Iberian]

Another waste of time. Story coming from the pajama patrol, leaked to the keystone cops and to the liberal media. Garbage, just like all their other crap.

[PhilipRick]

Iraqpress.org is hardly "liberal". The registry of iraqpress.org ie "faten muheadeen" of
Uxbridge, England. "Faten muheadeen" rhymes with mujahideen so, iraqpress.org may be an Al Qaeda Cult disinformation outlet.

[twntaipan]

How long befor DUers and their media lackeys cry that Bush is the cause of this?

[Mitchell]

It turns out that this report had already been discredited back on April 1, 2004. See http://www.promedmail.org, Archive number 20040401.0884.

The claim should never have appeared in a news article dated May 11, 2004. It was a recycled news story, already known to be false. (And the supposed contagiousness was a giveaway that it was bogus anyway.)

In the interest of putting false rumors to rest, I've pinged everybody who had posted to this thread.

[alnick]

Thanks.

[swilhelm73]

Well, I'd normally complain quite profusely about a paper confusing actinomycosis with anthrax and 0 deaths with 6. But then again, unlike, the Boston Globe and Daily Mirror, at least they didn't purposely run a false story.

[PhilipRick]

I am the registered Democrat and liberal who found the registry info re: iraqpress.org ie this info suggests that the story is purposeful disinformation by the Al Qaeda Cult which possibly answers the question at the end of the PROMed post cited by Mitchell.

[bwteim]

Thank you for the update.

[Mitchell]

I am the registered Democrat and liberal who found the registry info re: iraqpress.org ie this info suggests that the story is purposeful disinformation by the Al Qaeda Cult which possibly answers the question at the end of the PROMed post cited by Mitchell.

Thanks for pointing out the registry info.

I don't know if this article was simply very poor journalism or if it was intentional disinformation.

[cgk]

*ping* -----

[piasa]

A year before this report, in the same general area of Iraq [MOSUL]... might be why the press there is a bit edgy about anthrax:

MAY 12, 2003 : (REPORT: MOBILE LABS FOUND IN NORTHERN IRAQ NEAR MOSUL ) MOSUL DISCOVERY : Meanwhile, U.S. officials said the mobile laboratories were found at a bombed-out rocket and missile factory near Mosul in northern Iraq. One of the trailers was missing its canvas cover, wheels and plumbing — most likely taken by looters — but the essential parts, including a compressor and dryer needed to produce weapons grade anthrax, were intact. ---- "REPORT: "Dr. Germ" now in U.S. custody - U.S. says ‘Dr. Germ’ surrendered in Baghdad; Iraqi scientist conducted research that led to bioweapons, U.S. says ," by Miklaszewski, Tammy Kupperman, Robert Windrem, AP & Reuters staff, MSNBC NewsAlert, May 12, 2003