US: Anthrax Alert in DC

[gilliam]

Pentagon Mail Center Tests Positive for Anthrax

 

[Lisa4Catholics]

So how long will it take to find out,if it is indeed anthrax?:nope:

 

[gilliam]

Lisa4Catholics:

So how long will it take to find out,if it is indeed anthrax?

Samples taken at a Pentagon mail facility were positive for anthrax in preliminary overnight tests, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services reported today. But officials do not yet know definitively if anthrax bacteria are present or, if they are, whether they could have transmitted disease.

The spokesman, Bill Hall, said that further tests are being conducted at Fort Detrick to determine if the anthrax was present, if it was live, or if the test just picked up a component of anthrax. Such testing normally takes 24 to 48 hours, but initial results may be available by this afternoon.

 

[Lisa4Catholics]

gilliam:

More test results due out this afternoon.

This is terrible I hope it is a false positive.With all the calls for terrorism going out,I feel like if there is a way they will do it.

 

[gilliam]

Samples Test Positive for Anthrax
Asked what the chances are of a false positive in the case of the tested culture, the source told FOX News that the likelihood is “low.” Field tests often can come back as a false positive, but the secondary tests appear to confirm the DNA test taken at the scene.

one more round of testing to go…

 

[gilliam]

No mail to Washington-area federal government offices as anthrax precaution

Lots of updates, and some of them quite odd:
DoD letters 2nd test anthrax
IRS letter rat poison
CNN (wash) letter ammonium phosphate

Government mail distribution is shut down. All mail not previously screened and irradiated will not be delivered for several days or more.

counterterror.typepad.com/the_counterterrorism_blog/

 

[gilliam]

CDC report (which just came out).

bt.cdc.gov/agent/anthrax/han031505.asp

The actual exposure was on Thursday.Presence of anthrax was confirmed yesterday.

 

[gilliam]

so far, no indications of it spreading:

defenselink.mil/news/Mar2005/20050315_193.html

 

[gilliam]

Official: Tests for anthrax negative

Pentagon mail facility could reopen Wednesday

 

[gilliam]

ASHINGTON, March 15 - Health officials believe that a mix-up of samples in a Defense Department contractor’s laboratory was behind an anthrax scare Monday and Tuesday that rattled the stock market, set the White House on alert, shut three post offices in the Washington area and led to more than 800 people being offered antibiotics. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, noted that any laboratory testing for anthrax usually kept a sample of anthrax on hand to calibrate equipment. He said evidence suggested that the sample had somehow contaminated an air filter from a Pentagon shipping center that had been sent to the laboratory for routine testing last Thursday.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com …

Sure explains the confusion, cancelled press conferences, etc.