1957 New Hampshire Anthrax Deaths Recalled

It has been a long time since Anita Simonds has thought about the inhaled anthrax that killed her father and three co-workers in 1957.

The memories came rushing back when she learned about Friday’s death of a Florida man from the rare disease.

“We had never heard of anthrax at that time,” Simonds, now 75, said in an interview Sunday. “In those days, you didn’t have the TV and all the news you get now.”

Simonds has learned much about the disease since, but said Americans shouldn’t worry, even in the wake of last month’s terrorist attacks.

“You can’t sit there and be afraid,” she said, adding that she has no plans to buy a gas mask. “Whatever God’s plans are for us, so be it.”

Simonds’ father, Antonio Jette, was 49 when he came down with a cough and fever on Sept. 5, 1957. He died the next day.

His family later learned that he had contracted anthrax while working at the former Arms Textile Co. in Manchester, N.H. Officials said he inhaled the bacteria from goat hair imported from Pakistan that was to be used in the manufacture of linings for men’s suits.

His death and that of three co-workers occurred during a trial of an anthrax vaccine that was conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at the textile plant and three other sites where anthrax had occurred.

None of the workers who died was given the vaccine. They were either given a placebo or started work at the mill after the trial began and didn’t participate.

Testing of the vaccine, which was developed by the Army Chemical Corps., was halted soon after the Manchester deaths, and all the workers were given the vaccine, said Dr. Philip Brachman, who led the field evaluation for the CDC.

No one died at the other testing sites, in Philadelphia and Chester, Pa., Brachman said Sunday. Brachman said he believes the type of goat hair used today in the U.S. is synthetic.

Only 18 inhalation anthrax cases in the United States were documented in the 20th century. Anthrax usually infects cattle, sheep and goats, but can cause severe illness and death in humans.

A 63-year-old Florida man died of inhalation anthrax Friday. He was the first human to catch the disease in the United States in 25 years. No further cases have been reported, and investigators are testing samples of soil, hair and other specimens to find out how he contracted the disease.

An injectable anthrax vaccine has been around since the 1970s, and the U.S. military has required anthrax vaccinations for service personnel since the Persian Gulf War.