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The U.S. military mistakenly sent live anthrax bacteria to laboratories in nine U.S. states and a U.S. air base in South Korea, after failing to properly inactivate the bacteria 11 months ago. The anthrax was initially sent from a Utah military lab and was meant to be shipped in an inactive state as part of efforts to develop a field-based test to identify biological threats. No one appears to have developed any symptoms, but have been given treatments as a precaution.
What went wrong? What are the best way to handle diseases such as this?
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U.S. Military Mistakenly Ships Live Anthrax To Nine States
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Nadia Comaneci, simple perfection.
-- '76 Olympics
(Score: 2) by Joe on Friday May 29 2015, @03:08AM
why else would they be "sending it into the air"
Inhalation anthrax is the most dangerous form, so any procedures that could potentially aerosolize spores have to be treated as if they did to err on the side of caution. Similar precautions were taken for the previous case with the CDC since the samples were used for Mass Spec analysis.
putting into the air without "enough safeguards" and that is cause for concern and investigation
Aerosolization of completely inactivated bacteria would pose no danger to the researchers. Also, the labs were probably still working under BSL-2 safety protocols so they would still act under protocols that would minimize exposure (it isn't like they would intentionally try to inhale inactivated anthrax).
http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2014/p0711-lab-safety-infographic.html/ [cdc.gov]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matrix-assisted_laser_desorption/ionization [wikipedia.org]
- Joe