Can anyone provide me with actual medical records of someone who died of anthrax?

Question

I need to find medical records indicating how the downward progression (resulting in death) show how the anthrax affected said patient.

Answer 1

HIPPA is an American law, it does not exist in other countries, so you could easily get this info in Mexico, for example. Anthrax kills us by releasing a toxin that causes macrophages to release huge amounts of interleukin one, which causes massive vasodilation in the lungs and death due to extremely low blood pressure to the brain. You must remember that what we think of as anthrax killing anyone it touches is only true for respiratory anthrax (you have to breathe in the bacterial spores), which is only 5% of cases. The other 95% are on the skin, where the anthrax does not get deep enough to cause major systemic problems, it just makes a good size black area in the skin, perhaps 5 cm across, but that goes away in a few weeks and heals easily.

Answer 2

The US government can give you detailed histories of anthrax patients, but I doubt that they will. There existed records, with detailed autopsies, of hundreds of anthrax victims who were not accidental but intentional victims. Dont worry- it wasnt the US government that did these tests- it was the Japanese, in occupied China, between 1932 and 1945 near Harbin at a place called unit 731. In fact, some of the experimental victims of anthrax at this biological weapons research labortatory were American prisoners of war.

http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/japan/bw/

So how could the US get these records? When Japan withdrew from China after their defeat, the lab directors tried to destroy all the research, but some (exactly what is debated) was saved and later bartered to the US in return for personal protection. The United States administrator (Douglas MacArthur) actually gave BLANKET IMMMUNITY (technically, amnesty) to the war criminal Japanese doctors in return for their data on biological weapons. At the beginning of the cold war, keeping these data out of the hands of Russia was more important than any principle of justice.

In 2000 the materials relating to these documents were officially declassified in US law ( the Japanese Imperial Government Disclosure Act), but whether you can get the real specific data you seek is anybody's guess.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731

Answer 3

HIPPA laws prohibit the sharing of health information by professionals or institutions. I did know of a neighbor that was exposed to anthrax in a lab and died. It started with respiratory distress, progressed to blood vessels collapsing, and she bleed out and died.

Answer 4

No...HIPPA regulations are what protect your medical records. Patient's right to privacy.

Answer 5

http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/ac/00/slides/3632s1_02_HUGH-JONES/sld021.htm

http://www.monitor.net/monitor/0208a/anthrax.html