WASHINGTON—Investigators believe live anthrax samples
may have been sent inadvertently from an Army research facility to
as many as 18 labs in nine states and South Korea, officials said
Thursday.
The U.S. military has ordered 22 service members and Defense
Department civilians in South Korea who may have come near the live
samples to take the antibiotic Cipro as a precautionary
measure.
"There are no suspected or confirmed cases of anthrax infection
in any of these personnel," said Col. Steve Warren, the chief
Pentagon spokesman.
In addition to South Korea's Osan Air Base, the defense lab at
the Dugway Proving Ground in Utah also sent samples of anthrax to
the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren, Va., and the Edgewood
Chemical Biological Center in Maryland.
The Pentagon hasn't identified private labs that received the
shipment, nor said whether their employees are being treated as a
precaution. But U.S. officials said there are no confirmed case of
anthrax infection in anyone who came in contact with the samples.
The civilian labs are in Texas, Wisconsin, Delaware, Tennessee,
California, New York and New Jersey.
The military ships both live and inactive anthrax samples by
FedEx, sealed inside absorbent material and surrounded by dry ice,
said a military official. The samples are also placed inside two
containers to prevent any accident leakage.
While the packaging is the same for active and inactive
material, live samples are supposed to be tracked by the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention and are subject to enhanced
security by FedEx, the official said.
FedEx didn't respond to specific questions but said in a
statement it is working with the Pentagon to gather information
about the anthrax shipments. "FedEx is committed to the safe
transport of all customer shipments, and our priority is the safety
of our employees," company spokeswoman Connie Avery said in a
statement.
A civilian lab in Maryland learned Friday that a sample it had
obtained from the Dugway defense lab more than a year earlier
contained live samples, not inactive spores. The U.S. government
was notified that night, and the Pentagon let the other 18 labs
that had received similar samples Saturday, said Col. Warren.
Col. Warren said the Pentagon quickly assessed there was no
danger to the public, then began looking into what happened.
"We got the information out as rapidly as we could," Col. Warren
said.
At a breakfast briefing with reporters sponsored by the Center
for Media and Security, Gen. Ray Odierno, the Army chief of staff,
said the live anthrax spores survived the process that was supposed
to kill the pathogen.
"We followed all the procedures," Gen. Odierno said. "The best I
can tell, it was not human error."
Write to Julian E. Barnes at julian.barnes@wsj.com
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