In the absence of early antibiotic treatment, respiratory
anthrax is fatal. The 2001 bioterrorism attacks in the US killed
four people, out of 22 infected (10 of them with respiratory
anthrax), despite massive antibiotic administration, probably
because therapy did not begin until the disease had reached the
fulminant stage. But a multi-agent prophylaxis initiated within
24 hours post-infection prevented development of fatal anthrax
respiratory disease, and treatment combining antibiotics with
immunization with a protective antigen-based vaccine conferred
long-term protective immunity against reestablishment of the
disease, according to a study in the April 2011 issue of the
journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. This study is the
first to characterize the severity of respiratory anthrax that
can be cured. The researchers, all from the Israel Institute for
Biological Research, Ness-Ziona, tested both the efficiency of
different therapeutic approaches in preventing fatal disease
from developing in infe