Correspondence
Anthrax: The Investigation of a Deadly Outbreak
N Engl J Med 2000; 343:1198October 19, 2000
- Article
To the Editor:
The May 4 review of my book Anthrax: The Investigation of a Deadly Outbreak 1 contains a historical error in need of correction. The pathoanatomical analysis proving that victims of the 1979 Sverdlovsk epidemic died of inhalatory anthrax was the work of Russian pathologist Faina Abramova and her colleague Dr. Lev Grinberg: the results were published in English in 1993.2 As I wrote in the book, Dr. Abramova, who was in charge of autopsies during the outbreak, courageously hid tissue samples of 41 patients from the KGB. The autopsy data alone, though, could not prove the culpability of the Soviet military. For that, it took an epidemiologic map documenting the whereabouts of the 66 victims just before the outbreak. That map, which was based on my 1992–1993 interviews with the victims' families, incontrovertibly points the way back to the Sverdlovsk military laboratory.
2 ReferencesJeanne Guillemin
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 021401
Steele JH . Review of: Anthrax: the investigation of a deadly outbreak. N Engl J Med 2000;342:1373-1373
Full Text2
Abramova FA ,Grinberg LM ,Yampolskaya OV ,Walker DH . Pathology of inhalational anthrax in 42 cases from the Sverdlovsk outbreak of 1979. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 1993;90:2291-2294
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- Citing Articles (2)
Citing Articles
1
Patrice Binder, Olivier Attre, Jean Paul Boutin, Jean Didier Cavallo, Thierry Debord, Alain Jouan, Dominique Vidal. (2003) Medical management of biological warfare and bioterrorism: place of the immunoprevention and the immunotherapy. Comparative Immunology, Microbiology and Infectious Diseases 26:5-6, 401-421
CrossRef2
P Binder. (2002) Dangers, menaces et risques ; des leçons du passé vers une posture de défense pour l'avenirHazards, threats, and risks; lessons from the past to a defence attitude for the future.. Comptes Rendus Biologies 325:8, 887-896
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