You are in the Metro Center station in Washington DC A perso

You are in the Metro Center station in Washington DC. A person carrying a bag opens up the bag and pulls out a glass jar filled with a powder (It is anthrax but you don\'t know it). He drops the jar on the concrete just as a metro train is pulling in. The jar breaks and the powder is blow into the station by the wind current created by the metro train. What can you do? What would your reaction be? How does the anthrax threaten you? What are its effects? What are the risks? How can you protect yourself?

Solution

My reaction would be nothing since I do not know that it was anthrax powder (given in the question). Whether it is infectious or non-infectious, I would just try to protect by masking my nose with a napkin or so.

Anthrax is spread by Bacillus anthracis. It could cause skin infections, respiratory infections and gastrointestinal infections.

Affects: cold or flu like symptoms followed by pneumonia and severe or fatal respiratory collapse.

There are three forms of anthrax: skin, inhalation, intestinal and injection. The risk or more prone to death percentage for inhalation form is higher than the other three forms. Despite treatment, the death may occur around 50 % to 80% in inhaled form.

Protection measures include wearing impermeable clothing and equipment such as rubber gloves, rubber apron and rubber boots with no perforations. Since the bacteria range from 0.5 to 5 micrometre in size, respiratory equipment capable of filtering this particle size can be used to prevent the spread of infection.