US Team Finds Anthrax in Kazakstan
The Associated Press
Friday, Oct. 12, 2001; 6:14 p.m. EDT
washingtonpost.com
WASHINGTON –– A U.S. military team helping to decommission a former Soviet biological weapons factory found anthrax spores this week, Pentagon and State Department officials said.
The four-member team found the anthrax in a pipe at the former Soviet facility at Stepnogorsk, which is now in Kazakstan, said Pentagon spokesman Maj. Tim Blair. All of the team members, as well as another eight people helping the team outside the building, had been vaccinated for anthrax and were wearing protective suits, Blair said.
None of the 12 workers were believed to have been exposed to the bacteria, but they all are taking antibiotics as a precaution, Blair said.
"This is what they were looking for, so they were prepared to deal with it," Blair said.
The team is part of a joint U.S.-Russian effort to dismantle the former Soviet Union's germ warfare sites. The plant at Stepnogorsk was built starting in 1982 to replace another factory which accidentally released anthrax into the air in 1979, killing about 70 people. |
