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April 21, 2002
WASHINGTON -- Six months after inhaling anthrax spores, several of the mail workers who survived the deadly disease have yet to make a full recovery and are experiencing serious fatigue and memory loss.
In interviews with five of the six survivors of inhalational anthrax, four spoke of frequent exhaustion. Only one person, a 74-year-old Florida man, has returned to work. But others said they require daily naps after the slightest exertion. They and their families say they have noticed problems with memory and concentration.
"The question is, why aren't these people back to normal?" said Mark Galbraith, an infectious disease specialist in Virginia who is treating a victim.
The extent of the problems has highlighted for Galbraith and other physicians how little the medical community knows about this illness and the potency of the toxins.
Eleven Americans, from Florida to Connecticut, contracted the inhaled form of anthrax after a rash of terrorist mailings to politicians and media outlets. Five died. Six were treated and survived.
"I'm just so tired," said David Hose, 59, of Winchester, Va., who was released from the hospital in November after 16 days of intensive treatment. Hose worked at the State Department's diplomatic mail facility in Sterling, where, investigators believe, he inhaled anthrax spores from a letter addressed to Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., that was accidentally routed to the facility. He is trying to regain his strength through therapy but spends most of his time watching television because he has little energy to do much else, he says.
Bradley Perkins, the top anthrax expert at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, said the CDC is aware of "complaints and concerns" among some of the inhalation survivors. The CDC is not conducting a systematic study of their health, he said, except for collecting blood samples to develop better vaccines.
"We're just now approaching the kind of time period where one would normally expect a full recovery," he said. But "a number of survivors have not returned to their normal daily activities.
"We have concern about the level" of their recovery, he added, and the CDC is "actively discussing" whether to conduct a formal study of their symptoms.
Perkins said memory loss and fatigue could be results of the infection. Anthrax produces toxins, "and some could have impact on nerve tissues," he said. It also is possible that survivors are experiencing some form of post-traumatic stress syndrome, he added.
Until the outbreak last year, inhalational anthrax was almost always fatal. Consequently, little is known about the experience of survivors and whether the infection has long-term effects.
The recent inhalational cases are unlike the other few dozen recorded in the United States in the last half-century, most of which were contracted by workers exposed to animal hides.
Leroy Richmond, 57, one of two Washington, D.C., postal workers to survive inhalational anthrax, discovered by talking with a postal worker in New Jersey that he was not the only survivor having memory problems. Norma Wallace, 57, who worked in Hamilton Township, N.J., and was hospitalized with inhalational anthrax for 18 days, told him that she would often lose her train of thought in the middle of a conversation.
Richmond's wife, Susan, had noticed the same thing in her husband. "We know he's getting old," she said, "but it's not normal for him, in the middle of a conversation, to say he can't remember what the questions were."
The only survivor who appears to have made a full recovery is Ernesto Blanco, 74, who returned in February to his job handling mail for American Media Inc. at its new office building in Boca Raton.
"I feel good," said Blanco, who hasn't experienced fatigue or memory problems. "I remember everything. I feel 100 percent fine. Honest to God, you won't believe me, but I almost feel better than before."