Allegations of Biological Weapons Use - Deadly Cultures: Biological Weapons Since 1945 - page 259

The Anthrax Cases

The ISC report contained case histories and autopsy findings from five
cases of inhalation anthrax in northeastern China during March and
April 1952, in five settlements separated by 35 to 400 kilometers.
Witnesses in four of the locations reported overflights of US aircraft
that dropped objects, two of which were observed to burst in the air.
Later, masses of insects or feathers were collected near the drop zones
and reported to be contaminated with Bacillus anthracis. Four of the five
fatal cases had helped to collect and destroy contaminated material. Gross
autopsy results, including postmortem cultures, were presented for all
five, and histopathology was presented from three. Photographs of pre-
served gross specimens were submitted for two. The clinical accounts
and postmortem pathology were fully consistent with the current under-
standing of human inhalation anthrax, including sporadic cases caused
by manual handling of contaminated material, such as occurred in Flor-
ida during the 2001 US postal outbreak.
The close correlation of the 1952 ISC inhalation anthrax cases to the
current understanding of this disease makes it clear that the data were
not fabricated. In 1952 descriptions of the pathology of inhalation an-
thrax were scant, and they differed substantially from the modern under-
standing. In about 30 autopsies between 1890 and 1924, which formed
the textbook understanding of this disease until after the Korean War, in-
volvement of the lung itself was considered the fundamental lesion, with
bronchial ulceration reported in almost all cases. Mediastinal lymph-
node involvement was a minor finding, inconsistently described, and
meningitis was not described. The pathology texts cited in the ISC report
stressed lung and bronchus involvement as the fundamental process. 46
In marked contrast, in more than 60 autopsies since 1957 (including
two BW-related events: the 1979 Sverdlovsk and 2001 US postal out-
breaks), lung involvement was absent or minimal, bronchial ulceration
was not reported, mediastinal enlargement was reported in almost all,
and meningitis was common. 47 This is the “modern” pattern, first de-

scribed in 1960.
The ISC cases clearly presented the “modern” pattern: lung involve-
ment was minimal, none showed bronchial ulceration, four of five