Friday, June 11, 2004
Live anthrax shipped from Md. to Calif.
Source: UPI - 06/11/04
The Centers for Disease Control is investigating how live anthrax was mistakenly shipped from Maryland to California, exposing five people to the deadly agent.
Researchers at the Southern Research Institute in Frederick, Md., intended to send dead samples of the bacteria to colleagues at Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute in Oakland, Calif., so they could produce antibodies against the disease by injecting the dead anthrax into mice. When nearly all of the mice died, government health officials were notified, and the scientists who had been exposed to the anthrax were given the antibiotic Cipro, The Baltimore Sun reported.
FBI bioterrorism experts based in San Francisco collected the samples from the Oakland hospital Wednesday.
No wrongdoing is suspected, and no criminal investigation is planned, said Bill Carter, a spokesman at FBI's Washington headquarters.
The deadly material was shipped in March but wasn't injected into the mice until months later. On May 28, 10 mice were injected; all 10 died three days later. On June 4, 40 mice were injected; 39 were dead three days later.
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