It said there was no known suspected infection or risk to the public. But a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said four U.S. civilians had been advised to take preventive measures, which usually includes the anthrax vaccine, antibiotics, or both.
The official did not further identify the four or their location.
The anthrax had been meant to be shipped in an inactive state as part of U.S. military efforts to develop a field-based test to identify biological threats, the Pentagon said.
"Out of an abundance of caution, (the Defense Department) has stopped the shipment of this material from its labs pending completion of the investigation," said Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steve Warren.
Because the live anthrax was sent to labs working on the dangerous bacteria, researchers there have likely been vaccinated against anthrax, said Dr Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease expert at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
"That's part of standard biosafety protocol at such labs," he said. If anyone who has not been vaccinated was exposed, they can undergo post-exposure prophylaxis with vaccination and antibiotics.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said it is investigating the mishap.
"All samples involved in the investigation will be securely transferred to CDC" or affiliated labs "for further testing," said spokeswoman Kathy Harden, adding that CDC has sent officials to the labs "to conduct on-site investigations."
The mishap comes 11 months after CDC, one of the government's top civilian labs, had a similar lapse.
Researchers at a lab designed to handle extremely dangerous pathogens sent what they believed were killed samples of anthrax to another CDC lab, one with fewer safeguards and therefore not authorized to work with live anthrax.
Scores of CDC employees were potentially exposed to the live anthrax, but none became ill.
That incident and a similar one last spring, in which CDC scientists shipped what they thought was a benign form of bird flu but which was actually a highly virulent strain, led U.S. lawmakers to fault a "dangerous pattern" of safety lapses at government labs.
In the latest case, anthrax was sent from the Army's Dugway Proving Ground to laboratories in Maryland, Texas, Wisconsin, Delaware, New Jersey, Tennessee, New York, California and Virginia, a defense official said.
The sample sent to South Korea was subsequently destroyed, the Pentagon said.
On Friday night the Maryland laboratory alerted CDC that it had a live sample; by midday on Saturday, all nine laboratories were notified, the official said.
Experts in biosafety were astonished by the latest lapse.
"These events shouldn't happen," said Stephen Morse of Columbia University, a former program manager for biodefense at the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
Scientists working with the most dangerous pathogens follow a "two-person rule," never handling samples alone. The second pair of eyes is meant to insure scientists take proper precautions during experiments.
Two people should also vet shipments of supposedly killed anthrax, Morse said: "We can put greater safeguards in place."
(Additional reporting by Lisa Lambert; Editing by Sandra Maler, Eric Beech and Andrew Hay)
source: www.abs-cbnnews.com
