Anthrax shipment count climbs
Live samples sent to at least 51 labs in 17 states, District of Columbia
WASHINGTON — Suspected live anthrax was inadvertently sent by the U.S. military to at least 51 facilities in 17 states and the District of Columbia, including the agency that provides security at the Pentagon, defense officials said Wednesday.
Anthrax was also sent to Australia, Canada and South Korea.
Pentagon officials, in their first extended comments about the issue since it was disclosed a week ago, told reporters that the number of confirmed shipments is likely to continue growing. But the problem should not be blown out of proportion, they said, adding that many safeguards were in place to prevent a public outbreak of the deadly bacterial disease.
“You have to accept that these numbers are in flux and are changing constantly as we get more results,” said Frank Kendall, the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and lo- gistics, at a news conference. “I wouldn’t obsess about the numbers at this point.”
Ten samples in nine states have tested positive for live anthrax, defense officials said. All 10 originated at Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, the Army laboratory that irradiated them and shipped them across the country, believing they were dead.
The other suspected samples are either in testing or are set to be tested in coming days in Atlanta by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The problem was discovered May 22 at an undisclosed commercial laboratory in Maryland that received a sample that originated at Dugway and had been distributed by the U.S. Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center, a military facility at Aberdeen Proving Ground, northeast of Baltimore. Civilian scientists began culturing the anthrax, which they believed was dead, and they called for help from the CDC when they found that was not the case.
Since then, the CDC has launched an investigation to determine what hap- pened, and the Pentagon has promised its own internal review. The Defense Department assessment will focus heavily on why both the irradiation process and the testing done afterward to make sure the anthrax samples involved were dead did not work.
Navy Cmdr. Franca Jones, a Pentagon microbiologist, told reporters that the anthrax was shipped in liquid form, which is less infectious than powder, and put inside a vial enveloped by several layers of protection, including a plastic bag, absorbent material and a plastic container. Those items are then put in a larger container holding dry ice and shipped through commercial shipping services.
The only difference in the process between shipping live anthrax and dead anthrax is an additional label on boxes containing live spores, she said. They are labeled to make it explicit that they contain an infectious material.
Defense officials said Wednesday that the facilities believed to have suspected live samples include the four laborato- ries that irradiate them: Dugway, Edgewood and Fort Detrick in Maryland, and a facility in Maryland affiliated with the Naval Medical Research Center.
One of the samples also was also sent to the Pentagon Force Protection Agency, a civilian agency that oversees security at the Pentagon, Navy Annex and other related military facilities. It has its own police force. The anthrax was kept off the Pentagon installation and is routinely used to test for the presence of spores in the field.
Other suspected samples were sent to facilities in California, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington state, Wisconsin, Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Ohio, North Carolina and the District of Columbia. Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, declined Wednesday to identify the facilities, citing binding legal nondisclosure agreements. All of them are civilian-run.
No one has shown any symptoms of the disease, officials said. Thirty-one people, including eight civilians and 23 Defense Department troops or employees, are taking an antibiotic prophylaxis designed to fight anthrax.