Following the scare after the recent cases of anthrax found in the U.S., the hysteria has also arrived in Bulgaria. Fortunately, up to now, all checks of unidentified powdery substances found up and down the country have turned out negative. Most suspicious powders have turned out to be talc, baking soda and washing powder.

It all started with a signal for two packages containing a powdery substance found in the park area near the Sofia Hilton last Tuesday. The same day officers at the Sofia Central Post Office found white powder in a small parcel posted abroad. None of the checked substances turned out to be anthrax, though.

According to the daily bulletin of the Interior Ministry, 16 cases of white powder reports were filed with Bulgarian police on Sunday alone.

"At this point there is no tangible risk of bioterrorist attacks in Bulgaria," said the chief of the Standing Committee for Protection of the Population against Disasters and Accidents, Nedjet Mollov, in a special statement last Friday. He pointed out that even though reports about boxes and envelopes with powdered substance found at various places or received by post, some even with "anthrax" written on them, come daily, in none of the cases was the powder found to contain any agents causing an infectious disease.

"These are actions done by unstable and ill-minded people," Mollov said. "They prevent government institutions from doing their daily work and create a scare among the population."

The results of many investigations of cases of white powder in different places show that people used the anthrax scare all over the world to play jokes on others. Late last week the Interior Ministry circulated a warning that the Penal Code envisages two years imprisonment, corrective labour or internal exile for hoaxers.

On Saturday, a man threw white powder in the face of a 14-year-old girl in the park in front of the National Palace of Culture. The police investigation showed that the man was hired for 10 leva by the presenter of a teenage talk show on 7 Days Television, Antoni Deninski. A hidden camera was supposed to shoot the reaction of the girl. The medical check of the girl did not determine any injury. Deninski was immediately arrested.

Some cases of "anthrax" signals have proved comical. Last Thursday the police in Botevgrad (Northwestern Bulgaria) received a call from a local man who said that there was a suspicious powder all over the logs stored beneath his balcony. The police officers quickly found out that the man's 50-year-old neighbour did this on purpose because she was afraid that he might steal her firewood.

In connection with the frequent signals by citizens, Mollov, who is also Bulgaria's minister without portfolio, ordered that a crisis headquarters be set up. On its first meeting last Friday, the officers of the headquarters discussed coordination between the different services that handle the cases all over the country. An emergency telephone line was set up on Monday. Citizens can receive information about anthrax on 43 47 241 every day from 8am to 10pm. All questions are answered by employees of the National Centre for Contagious and Parasitic Diseases.

"There is no panic among the population in Bulgaria so far," said a woman who is on duty at the emergency line on Wednesday afternoon and who preferred to remain anonymous. She said that an average of 30 people call a day asking about how to prevent the disease, what the symptoms are and what to do if they have these symptoms. Some of the people on duty at the telephone line speak English and French, but so far there have been no calls from foreign citizens.

"Most of the questions are very basic and elementary," the woman pointed out. "Obviously people do not know much about the disease.

Anthrax is an acute infectious disease caused by the spore-forming bacterium Bacillus anthracis, explained Mira Kozhuharova, national epidemology consultant. Anthrax most commonly occurs in wild and domestic animals but it can also occur in humans when they are exposed to infection. Anthrax infection can occur in three forms: cutaneous (skin), inhalation, and gastrointestinal. Humans can become infected with anthrax by handling products from infected animals or by inhaling anthrax spores. Symptoms of disease vary depending on how the disease was contracted, but symptoms usually occur within seven days.

Skin infection begins as a raised itchy bump that resembles an insect bite but within one-two days develops into a vesicle and then a painless ulcer. Lymph glands in the adjacent area may swell. About 20 per cent of untreated cases of skin anthrax will result in death.

Initial symptoms of the inhalation form may resemble a common cold. After several days, the symptoms may progress to severe breathing problems and shock. Inhalation anthrax is usually fatal.

The intestinal disease form of anthrax is characterized by an acute inflammation of the intestinal tract. Initial signs of nausea, loss of appetite, vomiting and fever, are followed by abdominal pain, vomiting of blood, and severe diarrhea. Intestinal anthrax results in death in 25 per cent to 60 per cent of cases.

According to medical specialists, direct person-to-person spread of anthrax is extremely unlikely to occur. Transmission is not considered a concern in treating or visiting patients with inhalation anthrax.

In order to be effective, treatment of anthrax should be initiated early with antibiotics prescribed by doctors.

"The antibiotics should be taken in cases of infected people," Kozhuharova said. "They should not be taken in advance by completely healthy people."

"The Ministry of Health is planning to supply advanced equipment, reagents and protective clothing to several laboratories for protection against a possible biological attack," Health Minister Bozhidar Finkov said before last Thursday's regular Cabinet meeting.

He said that no calculations have been made regarding the government expenses involved in the operation of the task groups handling anthrax hazard reports. "Such costs fall within the normal spending of the respective departments. The new equipment will cost between 120,000 and 140,000 leva," the minister pointed out. According to him, the Civil Protection agency, the Interior Ministry and the Defence Ministry will probably need equipment as well. Instructions on bioattack response are to be distributed in regional health care centres and hospitals.

Five anthrax cases have been registered in Bulgaria by the Ministry of Health since the beginning of the year, said Angel Kunchev, expert from the ministry in an interview for the Bulgarian National Radio last Tuesday. The cases found in Rousse, Dobrich and Sofia, were all cutaneous infections. "Anthrax is not a new or unfamiliar illness in our health system," Kunchev said. "The anthrax cases in Bulgaria are rather mild, without any grave complications and without any deaths."

In most cases the infections have come about as a result of professional activities - the processing of animals or their products, most of all meat and leather.