Anthrax mistakenly sent to 18 US labs?

(Baonghean.vn)- The Pentagon and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that anthrax bacteria may have been mistakenly sent to 18 US laboratories. It is known that these samples originated from a military center in Dugway, Utah.

Anthrax bacteria were once considered a biological weapon. Photo: Reuters

The Pentagon announced that the Dugway lab is currently involved in a military research program that involves testing for biological threats. From March 2014 to April 2015, the Dugway lab repeatedly irradiated samples to render the bacteria inactive before sending them to other labs. However, it appears that anthrax bacteria were mistakenly sent to 18 other labs.

To date, only one lab in Maryland has detected the presence of anthrax bacteria, while the remaining 17 private labs have not detected anything, even though all 18 labs received the same package from the same source.

A CDC spokesman said that after receiving the information, laboratories “carefully” returned the packages to the CDC in Atlanta for analysis. It took up to five days to determine whether the returned packages contained live anthrax bacteria.

Although test results are not yet available, four laboratories in Texas, Wisconsin and Delaware have administered antibiotics to prevent the disease. The Pentagon announced that 24 civilian and military personnel at Osan Air Base have also been given prophylactic treatment.

Anthrax is an acute infectious disease that mainly affects animals rather than humans and can be fatal. In wartime, anthrax bacteria have been used as a biological weapon.

Chu Thanh -According to Le Monde