Anthrax sent to 18 US labs by mistake?

(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 said the Dugway lab is currently involved in a military research program that involves testing for biological threats. Between March 2014 and April 2015, the Dugway lab repeatedly irradiated samples to render them inactive before sending them to other labs. However, it appears that anthrax was 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.

After receiving the information, labs “carefully” returned the packages to the CDC in Atlanta for analysis, a CDC spokesperson said, and it took up to five days to determine whether the returned packages contained live anthrax.

Although test results are not yet available, four laboratories in Texas, Wisconsin and Delaware have administered antibiotics as a precautionary measure. 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. During wartime, anthrax bacteria were used as a biological weapon.

Chu Thanh -According to Le Monde