More things to consider about the anthrax letters below. Another international mailing of anthrax - Atlanta to Kenya in addition to the earlier Malaysia to Microsoft mailing.
Re. the milling of anthrax spores into a fine powder for easy air dispersion - I wonder how hard that is to do? What level of sophistication does it take?
quote.bloomberg.com
10/18 10:02
Kenyan Anthrax Cases Confirmed; Letter to UN Checked (Update2)
By Mike Zemene
Nairobi, Kenya, Oct. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Four members of a family in Kenya were exposed to anthrax from a letter mailed in Atlanta, the first confirmed cases outside the U.S. since contaminated mail began arriving last month, Agence France-Presse reported, citing the Kenyan health minister.
In the U.S., the latest case of the bacteria involves a CBS employee in the New York City office of news anchor Dan Rather who tested positive for anthrax, the Associated Press reported.
In Kenya, two other letters besides the one from Atlanta are being tested for anthrax, including one sent to the United Nations Environment Program in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, UN spokesman Tore Brevik said in a telephone interview from Nairobi.
``In all the cases, mail containing powder-like material was found, and so far one has tested positive for anthrax by stain and smear,'' Health Minister Sam Ongeri said, according to AFP.
The outbreak has raised fears among veterans of United Nations weapons inspections of an organized attack.
``This really reduces the probability that it's some independent nutter out there,'' Charles Duelfer, the UN's deputy chief inspector in Iraq, told the U.K.'s Guardian newspaper.
The U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed in an attack in 1998 that the U.S. says was masterminded by Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington. Letters and packages tainted with anthrax began arriving at U.S. offices after last month's attacks. The U.S. has not yet linked the anthrax cases to bin Laden.
In Paris, the French parliament went on alert and three employees were hospitalized for observation after a letter containing white powder was found there this morning, National Assembly spokeswoman Floriane Fontaine said. A back entrance and the room where the letter was found have been sealed.
The U.S. House of Representatives cancelled today's legislative business after more than 30 employees tested positive for exposure to anthrax. New York Governor George Pataki also closed his Manhattan office after tests indicated the bacteria's presence in one room.
United Nations
The letter to the Kenyan family was postmarked from Atlanta on Sept. 8, three days before the attacks on New York and Washington, and also had postmarks from Miami, AFP said, citing Ongeri. No details of the family were released.
The letter sent to an unnamed UN employee bore Pakistani postage stamps, the agency's spokesman in Kenya, Brevik, was quoted as saying by AFP. The third letter in Kenya suspected of having being contaminated with anthrax was posted from Nairobi to a businessman in the central town of Nyeri, Ongeri said.
Strains of the deadly bacteria discovered earlier in Florida and New York matched, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, indicating they may have a common origin. Four people have been diagnosed with anthrax infections, two in Florida and two in New York. One person has died.
The U.S. House closed to allow buildings in the Capitol to be examined. The Senate will stay in session, while testing of its offices continues, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle said.
``We will not let this stop the work of the Senate,'' Daschle said.
New York
In New York City, Pataki said tests conducted in a room used by his security detail ``indicated the likelihood that anthrax was present.'' The 75 to 80 employees who work in the Manhattan office will take antibiotics as a precaution even though there is no indication of exposure, Pataki said. The governor said he was taking antibiotics but will not be tested for exposure.
The spores may have been carried into the room by members of the security detail who accompanied Pataki to two television networks where letters containing anthrax were sent, Pataki said.
At NBC News in New York, where one employee developed anthrax after exposure to a contaminated letter, 500 people tested negative for the bacteria. Tests on a ventilation system at ABC News in New York, where an employee's baby son was infected, didn't show any presence of anthrax.
Tests determined that about 25 members of Daschle's staff plus about six Capitol Hill police officers were exposed to anthrax after a letter carrying the bacteria was sent to his office, Daschle said. They are taking antibiotics and ``the good news is that everyone will be okay,'' Daschle said.
Exposure and Infection
Four people have been infected by anthrax in the current outbreak, including 63-year-old Robert Stevens, a photographer for American Media Inc. in Boca Raton, Florida. Stevens, the lone fatality, died of the inhaled form of the disease.
Exposure to anthrax spores and infection with the bacteria are two different issues, according to David Siegrist, a bioterrorism expert from the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies. Nasal swab samples from U.S. textile workers in the late 1900s commonly tested positive for anthrax exposure without the workers contracting the disease, he said.
Even though bacterial spores have been found in a Senate office building, it's unlikely the concentration is enough to sicken people, Siegrist said.
Still, the anthrax strain was in a powder that had been finely milled to disperse it easily through the air, which raises concerns about the potential for a wider attack, Siegrist said.
``I am very concerned'' by the apparent sophistication of the powder sent to Daschle, Siegrist said. ``All (anthrax powder) is bad, and some of it is quite bad.''
Common Variety
Anthrax is not passed from person to person. A large-scale attack would only be successful if perpetrators were able to process dried anthrax spores into a fine powder that could then be dispersed from an airplane, through ventilation units, or via mass transportation systems, experts say.
Major General John S. Parker, the commanding general of the American Medical Research and Materiel Command at Fort Detrick, Maryland, where the anthrax was tested, said yesterday that it is a ``common variety form'' and therefore hadn't been genetically manipulated to be more virulent.
Parker said the strain could be treated with antibiotics.
In Australia's capital Canberra, parts of the federal parliament buildings were blocked off by police and fire officers, and nine people were quarantined after a staff member was burned by a suspicious substance when opening mail.
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