U.S. Offers ("Unlicensed, Controversial" "Military") Anthrax Vaccine to Thousands

Washington -- Despite initial assurances that antibiotics would prevent an anthrax infection, Capitol Hill staff members and postal workers are scheduled to begin taking an unlicensed anthrax vaccine as early as today because of concern that the initial medication was not fully effective.

The use of the vaccine marks a new turn in the anthrax scare and provides yet another indication that public health officials are formulating policy on the fly. The extraordinary approval to use the unlicensed vaccine came after weeks of pressure from Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., whose office received one of the anthrax-tainted letters.

Another new Anthrax Story:

US anthrax investigation focuses on laboratories

Staff and agencies

Wednesday December 19, 2001

The anthrax investigation in the US is focused on fewer than a dozen laboratories that have worked with the deadly bacteria, it has emerged.

Investigators are working to identify the genetic fingerprints of anthrax held at each of the suspected laboratories, federal officials said.

Authorities are increasingly convinced the anthrax that has killed five people since October came from inside the US, and they are hoping to find the laboratory that produced it.

There have been no new cases of anthrax infection for weeks, but officials are still dealing with the fallout from those exposed to the tainted letters in the autumn.

Federal health officials said yesterday they would offer the experimental anthrax vaccine and an extra 40 days of antibiotic treatment to thousands of Capitol Hill, media and postal workers in case any anthrax still lurks in their lungs.

The risk of getting anthrax after the standard two months of antibiotics is "very mild, minor" according to Donald Henderson, the government's top bio-terrorism adviser. But Dr Henderson added: "It is not zero, however."

The FBI reportedly believes there are at least five and as many as a dozen labs that have worked with anthrax from the Ames strain found in letters sent to senators Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy.

Specifically, they have focused on labs that received samples from the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Disease at Fort Detrick, Maryland.

So far, the anthrax at each tested lab has been a perfect genetic match to the anthrax found in the letters, a federal official said, speaking anonymously. But anthrax has not yet been tested from every lab, he added.

In recent days, attention has focused on the possibility that a US military installation was involved. This was partly because many of the labs that received anthrax of the Ames strain obtained it from Fort Detrick.

Among contractors being investigated are those involved in classified work for the CIA, whose work is aimed at bio-terrorism defence.

CIA spokesman Mark Mansfield said the agency is cooperating with the FBI. He said all its work with virulent anthrax was done by a couple of outside contractors.

Meanwhile, the scientist who helped the US refine anthrax and turn it into a weapon said yesterday that bacteria spores used in the recent attacks could have been processed in a variety of ways, making it more difficult to trace the spores to their source.

William Patrick led the army's biological weapons program until it ended in 1969 and taught scientists how to turn wet clusters of bacteria spores into a dry powder.

Mr Patrick, who holds patents for techniques used to make weapons-grade anthrax, suggested the culprit is not necessarily linked to a large lab. The type of spores sent through the mail could have been processed in a crude laboratory "as long as you are dealing with small quantities of material," he said.

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