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WASHINGTON (AP) — The CDC says four lab workers are not sick, but they have been recommended to get antibiotics as a precaution after the Army mistakenly shipped live anthrax samples to their labs.
The labs were in Delaware, Texas and Wisconsin.
Meanwhile, about two dozen people are being treated for possible anthrax exposure at Osan Air Base in South Korea. U.S. officials say the base received the anthrax bacteria for training purposes, but it was supposed to have been inert. Hazardous materials teams destroyed the sample yesterday.
Gen. Ray Odierno (oh-dee-EHR'-noh) says human error probably was not a factor in the mistaken shipment. The Army chief of staff tells reporters the problem may have been a failure in the technical process of killing, or inactivating, the anthrax samples. He says, in this case, the process "might not have completely killed" the samples as intended.
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216-a-16-(Phillip Brachmann, professor, Emory University Rollins school of public health, in AP interview)-"with the organism"-Emory University anthrax expert Phillip Brachman says there are different safety rules when it comes to working with dead and live anthrax. (28 May 2015)
<<CUT *216 (05/28/15)££ 00:16 "with the organism"
218-a-14-(Phillip Brachmann, professor, Emory University Rollins school of public health, in AP interview)-"from the laboratories"-Emory University anthrax expert Phillip Brachman says he doesn't think the public was in any danger when the anthrax was shipped. (28 May 2015)
<<CUT *218 (05/28/15)££ 00:14 "from the laboratories"
217-a-16-(Phillip Brachmann, professor, Emory University Rollins school of public health, in AP interview)-"still another container"-Emory University anthrax safety expert Phillip Brachman says when he worked with anthrax, there were strict shipping protocols. (28 May 2015)
<<CUT *217 (05/28/15)££ 00:16 "still another container"
APPHOTO UTSAL101: This Feb. 19, 2015 photo shows Referee Module No. 2 of the Whole System Live Agent Test at Dugway Proving Ground in Dugway, Utah. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating that aspect of what went wrong at Dugway Proving Ground, the Army installation in Utah that sent the anthrax to government and commercial labs in nine states across the U.S. and to an Army lab in South Korea. (Kristin Murphy/The Deseret News via AP) SALT LAKE TRIBUNE OUT; MAGS OUT (18 Feb 2015)
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APPHOTO SLC101: FILE - In this May 11, 2003, file photo, Microbiologist Ruth Bryan works with BG nerve agent simulant in Class III Glove Box in the Life Sciences Test Facility at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah. The specialized airtight enclosure is also used for hands-on work with anthrax and other deadly agents. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it is investigating what the Pentagon called an inadvertent shipment of live anthrax spores to government and commercial laboratories in as many as nine states, as well as one overseas, that expected to receive dead spores. (AP Photo/Douglas C. Pizac, File) (28 May 2015)
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