HWC raises anthrax, antibiotic awareness

The sudden appearance of anthrax cases around the country has prompted the Student Health and Wellness Center to quickly increase their awareness of the disease.

In response to heightened concerns, some members of the 18-person staff took part in a teleconference/webcast sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) entitled "What Every Physician Should Know About Anthrax," on Fri., Oct. 19 and again on Mon., Oct. 22.

The purpose of the teleconference was to "bring people up to speed in terms of what anthrax is and what to look for and what to do if you think you have a case," said Director of Student Health and Wellness Dr. Alain Joffe. In familiarizing physicians, many of whom have never seen an anthrax case, with the disease, it succeeded in "putting anthrax on our radar screen," said Joffe.

There has been an increased demand around the country for ciproflaxin, or Cipro, the antibiotic that is used to treat anthrax, in addition to other things. The Health and Wellness Center has "some Cipro, not a lot," said Joffe.

However, the City Health Department reportedly has enough of the drug to treat up to 100,000 people.

Health and Wellness is "not stockpiling Cipro" in response to the demand. Joffe is confident that "if we need [Cipro] we'll get more from the hospital. or the Health Department."

He cautioned against "hoarding antibiotics" for one's peace of mind, especially since there are people who need Cipro to treat other illness and are finding it difficult to fill their prescriptions.

"Self-medicating is not really the prudent thing to do," said Joffe. "Someone would have to test positive or. a cluster of individuals with highly suspicious symptoms" would have to be found before Health and Wellness Center physicians would begin to write prescriptions for Cipro.

Doctors are not the only ones that need to make themselves aware of the disease's symptoms. The influx of cases makes it "incumbent on any health care worker to be familiar with anthrax," said Joffe.

The lack of familiarity with the deadly disease only adds to people's concern.

"I think my biggest concern is that I don't know anything about it, I don't know what to be concerned about," said senior Dakashna Bahadur.

The Health and Wellness Center is acknowledging such fears; they are fully aware "that [anthrax] is on students' minds," said Joffe.

Associate Dean of Students Dorothy Sheppard has not seen a significant amount of student alarm. "We really haven't had too many students asking for guidelines" or expressing other concerns directly to the Dean's office.

Students have come in to the Health and Wellness Center with "some general questions" about anthrax but there has not been a significant increase in the number of patients they are seeing.

"We haven't had any students come in and ask to be tested" for the disease, said Joffe, but due to the fact that it originally presents itself with flu-like symptoms, "we have seen some students with fever and respiratory ailments...asking 'how do you know this isn't anthrax?'"

Students have expressed concerns about their safety on campus in general, not just the threat of anthrax.

"I'm not really that concerned because although the concept of bioterrorism is scary, it has only been a few isolated incidents," said senior Bonnie Chen. Also, it's the same as with the flight scenario - so many more precautions are being taken and people are so much more aware, although I guess the potential is there for so much more damage since it's much harder to track."

Improving security measures goes together with ensuring student safety, and various offices on campus have participated in meetings addressing "increasing awareness of general security on campus," said Sheppard.

Many students on campus are simply seeking reassurance.

"People have a varying degree of tolerance for uncertainty," said Joffe. "Students want to know we're taking it seriously."

Other students do not feel as concerned for their health. "I don't feel it's any threat," said senior Ryan Songco. "There's too much hype. If it were more of a threat, I'd be more concerned.