NEW ORLEANS?Despite the recent anthrax scare in Florida, faculty and students at Loyola University-New Orleans say they are not very concerned about the disease potentially affecting them.
Maureen Shuh, assistant professor of biological sciences, said she is more concerned about getting in a car accident than about contracting anthrax.
?I think this country is on top of events like that,? Shuh said.
Shuh has had experience working with the deadly disease at Fort Detrick army base in Maryland.
?I worked at a facility that produced anthrax for the United States. The United States made weapons years ago; they don’t anymore, supposedly,? she said.
According to Shuh, it is very difficult to manufacture anthrax in its deadly form.
?You?d have to package it into some kind of warhead and send it out there,? she said. ?It?s hard to do it.?
According to the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, the two deadliest forms of anthrax for humans are inhalation anthrax and intestinal anthrax.
Inhalation anthrax is the form used in biomedical warfare because it is invisible and odorless, and people are unaware that they are breathing it in.