U.S. shipped anthrax spores overseas

LIVE anthrax spore samples were inadvertently sent by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) to laboratories in Canada, Australia and South Korea, as the number of DoD shipments to labs in the United States rose from 28 to 51 across 17 states.

 

Inactivated spore samples are routinely sent to other federal and private partner labs for development of biological countermeasures, but the discovery of live samples has prompted DoD to conduct a comprehensive review of its laboratory procedures, processes, and protocols associated with inactivating spore-forming anthrax.

 

Separately, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) began investigating the unintentional transfer of anthrax after a request for technical consultation from a private commercial lab and notified the DoD on May 22. The lab was working as part of a DoD effort to develop a new diagnostic test to identify biological threats. Although an inactivated agent was expected, the lab reported they were able to grow live Bacillus anthracis.

 

CDC is working in conjunction with DoD and other federal and state partners to conduct an investigation with all the labs that received samples from the DoD.  The ongoing investigation includes determining if the labs also received other live samples, epidemiologic consultation, worker safety review, laboratory analysis, and handling of laboratory waste.

 

 

No risk to general public

 

At a briefing at the Pentagon on Wednesday, the DoD said workers who may have had the risk of exposure to the samples are being closely monitored, but that there is no risk of infection to the general public.

 

Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work said there are no are no suspected or confirmed cases of anthrax infection among any workers in any of the labs that have received the most recently shipped samples or those sent to participating labs over the last 10 years.

 

“We know of no risk to the general public from these samples,” Mr Work said. “To provide context, the concentration of these samples are too low to infect the average healthy individual.”

 

As a precautionary measure, the department has advised any laboratory that may have received any shipment of inactivated anthrax from DoD to stop working on that lot until DoD and CDC issue further instructions.

 

Work said the four DoD laboratories that maintain the repository for these anthrax samples has been directed to test every previously inactivated anthrax sample to ensure that they are inactive. “That is why the numbers may rise,” he said. “We have a number of lots that we need to inspect and verify, and it takes some time to actually to do the test.”

 

Lab procedures under review 

 

In addition to ongoing CDC on-site investigation of DoD labs, department review of all DoD laboratory procedures, processes and protocols associated with irradiating live anthrax is expected to report the preliminary results within 30 days. The review will:

• Identify the root cause for the incomplete inactivation of the anthrax samples in DoD laboratories;

• Learn why sterility tests did not detect the presence of live anthrax;

• Review all DoD laboratory biohazard safety protocols and procedures;

• Inspect every DoD laboratory to ensure they all adhere to the established procedures and protocols; and

• Identify any systemic problems and take whatever steps necessary to fix them.

 

Along with determining the cause of the inadvertent shipment of low concentrations of live anthrax, the defense department pledged transparency and accountability in the department’s review.