Brazilian police curious about mystery bag (sailor didn't die of anthrax, but questions remain)

An Egyptian sailor who died in Brazil of a suspected case of anthrax aboard a merchant ship now quarantined outside Halifax Harbour was carrying a bag to a friend in Canada, say Brazilian police.

They alerted Interpol about the potentially contaminated package Ibrahim Sayed Soliman Ibrahim was carrying on the Wadi Alarab, said Neder Duarte, federal police chief of the city of Belem in Brazil’s northern state of Para.

“Maybe he had opened the luggage and then had problems with anthrax,” Duarte told The Daily News yesterday.

Brazilian police are investigating the case to determine if Ibrahim was somehow involved with bioterrorism, Duarte said.

“We cannot affirm really that link of terrorism,” he said. “But we have to investigate that possibility.”

Brazilian police don’t know who Ibrahim was supposed to deliver the package to, or where it was going in Canada, Duarte said.

“The bag didn’t come out from the the ship, just the corpse came out from the ship,” he said. “The bag is in Canada because the bag went with the ship.”

“We have not been asked to conduct any sort of criminal investigation or terrorist investigation at all,” said RCMP Sgt. Wayne Noonan.

Mounties have not found the bag Brazilian police indicated Ibrahim was carrying before he died.

“We have no information about any suitcase containing any foreign or biological material,” Noonan said.

“And we haven’t been asked to do any investigation by Interpol or by the Brazilian authorities.”

Ibrahim — who was second-in-command on the Wadi Alarab — died about 11 days ago of septicimia, which occurs when toxins from the bacteria enter the blood stream and do damage to the organs. There was strong hemorrhaging of the lungs, pancreas and brain, a symptom consistent with anthrax poisoning.

He had travelled recently to Brazil from Cairo to join his ship, which loaded bauxite in the Amazon to take to an Alcan aluminum plant in Quebec.

Police didn’t discover he may have died from anthrax until the 225-metre-long ship had left Brazilian waters, Duarte said.

Health Canada experts visited the Wadi Alarab on Saturday to take samples from the quarantined ship. They expect results from those tests by Thursday morning, said department spokeswoman Tracy Taweel.

Brazilian authorities are almost certain anthrax killed Ibrahim. But Duarte said final test results in his country should also be available later this week.

“It’s a case of public health, so we have to know the real situation,” Francisco Adriano, another federal police agent, said in a telephone interview from Brasilia, the capital of the South American country.

http://timesargus.nybor.com/Story/35943.html

Anthrax anxiety hits home in Vermont
October 19, 2001

By WILSON RING

The Associated Press

BURLINGTON — Vermont’s health commissioner said Thursday her department had recommended that 60 people undergo antibiotic treatments for possible anthrax exposure.

Commissioner Dr. Jan Carney emphasized, however, that the recommendation was a precaution and it was unlikely that the substance found on Northwest Airlines Flight 5908 was anthrax.

Nonetheless, the state was following a protocol established by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that called for the antibiotic Cipro to be prescribed when cultures taken from the substance grew into bacteria related to anthrax.

The state recommended treatment for the 44 passengers and three crew who had been on the regional commuter jet that arrived around midnight Monday from Detroit.

The same recommendation was made to baggage handlers and emergency personnel who responded to the airport, bringing the total undergoing treatment to 60.

“Preliminary tests on Tuesday of a powdery substance found on the plane showed no evidence of spores,” Carney said, “but further tests have shown growth of a bacillus or rod-shaped bacteria of the same genus as the bacteria that causes anthrax.”

“This bacteria growth means that the substance could be anthrax,” she said. “We believe that it is possible, but unlikely.”

There are between 40 and 50 bacteria in the same family as anthrax and final testing may well show that it was a bacteria other than anthrax on the plane, Carney said. That testing is expected to be completed “by dinner time” Friday, Carney said.

A Northwest spokesman said the powdery substance was found on luggage that was stowed beneath a baby’s diaper bag.

The fact that bacteria had grown from the substance “is not a surprise to us,” said Northwest spokesman Kurt Ebenhoch. “An aircraft cargo compartment is not a sterile environment. It’s a bacteria that’s a common bacteria.”

The Northwest jet that was involved remained on the tarmac in Burlington, although the state has not ordered it quarantined, Carney said.

.....

From "Diario Do Para", Belem, May 1

Egyptian was not victim of the anthrax FINDING OF INSTITUTE EVANDRO CHAGAS MOVES AWAY HYPOTHESIS, BUT IT DOES NOT CLARIFY CAUSE OF THE DEATH The director of Instituto Evandro Chagas (IEC), Manoel Soares, discarded the possibility of the Egyptian Ibrahim Sayed Solimam Ibrahim to have died victim of the bacterium of the anthrax. The finding technician divulged yesterday for the IEC says that the bacilli found in the body of the Egyptian are not compatible with the one of the anthrax, even so the Evandro Chagas does not know still which the species of bacillus caused the death of Ibrahim. "All the laboratoriais examinations that we made in the victim had given negatives. All they had pointed in the direction of the absence of the bacillus anthrax ", said Manoel Soares. The examinations had been carried through by the sectors of Bacteriology and Pathology of the IEC in specimens of vísceras and 5 ml of blood removed of the corpse of Ibrahim during the autopsy carried through in last day 12, in Instituto Médico Legal (IML), about 30 hours after the death of the Egyptian. The delay in the collection of the members of the victim, according to Manoel Soares, can have intervened with the result of the finding. According to it, the fragmentos of vísceras, when analyzed for the IEC already they showed one high state of destruction of the fabric and, therefore, more susceptible to present bacterial colonies, what of fact it occurred "fabrics present bacterial colonies in relation to which cannot be moved away the possibility to be related with badly state of conservation of the collected material", wrote Manoel Soares in the finding technician. The material analyzed for the Evandro Chagas was the same of the morphologic examination made by the credential laboratory of the Legal Medical Institute, whose resulted it more than pointed 90% of possibilities of Ibrahim to have been contaminated for the anthrax. The director of the IEC, however, affirmed that only the morphologic examination is not enough to close a diagnosis therefore exists diverse species of sorts of bacilli and the anthrax is only one of them. PF liberates body Although the examinations have not found the bacterium of the anthrax in the organism of Ibrahim, the director of the IEC informed that the Institute will continue searching the material collected in the body of the Egyptian. Taking in consideration the not ideal state of related specimens for the laboratoriais procedures, we will continue the research, launching hand of alternative disgnostic technologies aiming at the identification of eventual pathogenic agents or contaminantes gifts in the received samples ", informed Manoel Soares. The Egyptian Ibrahim Sayed died in last day 11, in the ship Wadi Alarab, anchored in Port Trumpets, in the west of Pará, with suspicion to have been contaminated for the bacterium of the anthrax. according to crew of the ship, the Egyptian would have manipulated a suspicious package to contain the bacterium and that it would have to be delivers in Canada, where the ship today meets and the members of the crew in comment restrained. Ahead of the conclusion of the IEC, the department of Federal Policy, in Pará, liberated the body of the victim for transfer and continues waiting the result of the research to restore the police inquest that goes to select the circumstances of the death. Cláudia Aragão

http://www.diariodopara.com.br/cidades/cid_07.htm

Egípcio não foi vítima do antraz

LAUDO DO INSTITUTO EVANDRO CHAGAS AFASTA HIPÓTESE, MAS NÃO ESCLARECE CAUSA DA MORTE

O diretor do Instituto Evandro Chagas (IEC), Manoel Soares, descartou a possibilidade do egípcio Ibrahim Sayed Solimam Ibrahim ter morrido vítima da bactéria do antraz. O laudo técnico divulgado ontem pelo IEC diz que os bacilos encontrados no corpo do egípcio não são compatíveis com o do antraz, embora o Evandro Chagas não saiba ainda qual a espécie de bacilo causou a morte de Ibrahim.
"Todos os exames laboratoriais que fizemos na vítima deram negativos. Todos eles apontaram na direção da ausência do bacilo antraz", disse Manoel Soares. Os exames foram realizados pelos setores de Bacteriologia e Patologia do IEC em espécimes de vísceras e em 5 ml de sangue retirados do cadáver de Ibrahim durante a necropsia realizada no último dia 12, no Instituto Médico Legal (IML), cerca de 30 horas após a morte do egípcio.
A demora na coleta dos membros da vítima, segundo Manoel Soares, pode ter interferido no resultado do laudo. Segundo ele, os fragmentos das vísceras, quando analisados pelo IEC já mostravam um elevado estado de destruição do tecido e, por isso, mais suscetível a apresentarem colônias bacterianas, o que de fato ocorreu. " Os tecidos apresentam colônias bacterianas em relação às quais não pode ser afastada a possibilidade de estarem relacionadas com mal estado de conservação do material coletado", escreveu Manoel Soares no laudo técnico.
O material analisado pelo Evandro Chagas foi o mesmo do exame morfológico feito pelo laboratório credenciado do Instituto Médico Legal, cujo resultado apontou mais de 90% de chances de Ibrahim ter sido contaminado pelo antraz. O diretor do IEC, no entanto, afirmou que somente o exame morfológico não é suficiente para fechar um diagnóstico pois existem diversas espécies de gêneros de bacilos e o antraz é apenas um deles.

PF libera corpo

Embora os exames não tenham encontrado a bactéria do antraz no organismo de Ibrahim, o diretor do IEC informou que o Instituto continuará pesquisando o material coletado no corpo do egípcio. Levando em consideração o estado não ideal dos referidos espécimes para os procedimentos laboratoriais, continuaremos as pesquisas, lançando mão de tecnologias diagnósticas alternativas visando a identificação de eventuais agentes patogênicos ou contaminantes presentes nas amostras recebidas", informou Manoel Soares.
O egípcio Ibrahim Sayed morreu no último dia 11, no navio Wadi Alarab, ancorado em Porto Trombetas, no oeste do Pará, com suspeita de ter sido contaminado pela bactéria do antraz. Segundo a tripulação do navio, o egípcio teria manipulado um pacote suspeito de conter a bactéria e que deveria ser entregue no Canadá, onde o navio hoje se encontra retido e os tripulantes em observação.
Diante da conclusão do IEC, o departamento de Polícia Federal, no Pará, liberou o corpo da vítima para traslado e continua aguardando o resultado da pesquisa para instaurar o inquérito policial que vai apurar as circunstâncias da morte.

Cláudia Aragão

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