The bioterrorism anthrax attacks that happened in 2001 though letters sent to various media workplaces left the world scared. Many people became infected through these letters, and also five innocent people died in consequence of them. It left the world confused and even more terrified when a 94 year old lady from a small town in Connecticut suddenly died from anthrax. Her name was Ottille Lundgren. It is still not known exactly today how she was exposed to this. There are many ideas as to how she died from anthrax. In the beginning people pondered on wither it could had been her who sent out the letters. But why would a 94 year old lady have any intent to do this? This idea was thrown out several years after the attacks when Bruce E. Ivins,
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Although 449 samples were taken from her home, and 33 samples elsewhere, no spores were ever found (Grady, 2012). The only possible way investigators made sense of it, was to think it was through the mail. "She'd complain about all the junk mail she used to get, and then she'd toss it into the trash can," Davis said which led Investigators to believe that one of those pieces of junk mail that Lundgren received crossed paths with one of two anthrax-laden letters sent to Congress that went through a sorting machine in Trenton, N.J” (Altimari, 2012).” Federal and state officials said contaminated mail was a prime suspect, though Lundgren was unable to walk by herself to her streetside letter box and had to wait for a friend or relative to bring her mail” (Gugliotta, G., White, B., 2001). So if Ottille was exposed to anthrax this way, why weren’t the people who came into contact with her mail also exposed? The violent shaking of the mail through the sorting machines allowed some of the anthrax spores to be forced out of the contaminated letters and allowed to come in contact with others mail (Altimari, 2012). It was hard to understand why others in the community also didn’t get sick, "It is conceivable that as one gets older that the natural host defenses in the lung might weaken enough to make contact with only a small amount of bacterial spores sufficiently deadly” (Dillion, n.d.). Since Lundgren was not deemed fit to be in charge of these attacks, and her soil and house were free of anthrax spores, it only makes sense that a few spores from her mail, enough to make her frail body sick, were the leading cause of her
Although 449 samples were taken from her home, and 33 samples elsewhere, no spores were ever found (Grady, 2012). The only possible way investigators made sense of it, was to think it was through the mail. "She'd complain about all the junk mail she used to get, and then she'd toss it into the trash can," Davis said which led Investigators to believe that one of those pieces of junk mail that Lundgren received crossed paths with one of two anthrax-laden letters sent to Congress that went through a sorting machine in Trenton, N.J” (Altimari, 2012).” Federal and state officials said contaminated mail was a prime suspect, though Lundgren was unable to walk by herself to her streetside letter box and had to wait for a friend or relative to bring her mail” (Gugliotta, G., White, B., 2001). So if Ottille was exposed to anthrax this way, why weren’t the people who came into contact with her mail also exposed? The violent shaking of the mail through the sorting machines allowed some of the anthrax spores to be forced out of the contaminated letters and allowed to come in contact with others mail (Altimari, 2012). It was hard to understand why others in the community also didn’t get sick, "It is conceivable that as one gets older that the natural host defenses in the lung might weaken enough to make contact with only a small amount of bacterial spores sufficiently deadly” (Dillion, n.d.). Since Lundgren was not deemed fit to be in charge of these attacks, and her soil and house were free of anthrax spores, it only makes sense that a few spores from her mail, enough to make her frail body sick, were the leading cause of her