November 2001

Below is a listing of bioterrorism-related events this month, part of an ongoing bioterrorism chronology that begins with Sep 11, 2001. To see events from other months, go to the Bioterrorism Watch index page.

Nov 28

US to buy 155 million doses of smallpox vaccine
United States health officials agree to buy 155 million doses of a new smallpox vaccine from a partnership between Acambis, a British-based company, and Illinois-based Baxter International. The companies had the lowest bid and fastest delivery schedule, according to HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson. Under the agreement, the United States will pay $428 millionor $2.76 a dosefor the vaccine. That price falls within Thompson's request to Congress for $509 million. The 155 million doses will bring the total US supply to 286 million doses, according to HHS officials. The number includes 54 million doses that Acambis is already under contract to produce and the existing stockpile of 15.4 million doses. HHS expects to be able to dilute the existing vaccine by 5 to 1 to stretch it to 77 million doses.

Anthrax in Chilean letter and US letters doesn't match
The strain of anthrax found in samples from a letter sent to Chile is not the same strain that has been identified in contaminated mail in the United States, the CDC announces. The Chile strain is indistinguishable from naturally occurring strains identified throughout the world, says Tom Skinner, a CDC spokesman. The letter was sent to Dr. Antonio Banfi at the Calvo Mackenna Children's Hospital in Santiago in mid-November. The CDC plans to continue working with the Ministry of Health in Chile to try to determine if this contamination occurred in a laboratory or elsewhere.

Robot to open Leahy letter
Government scientists will use a small robot to open a suspicious letter addressed to Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., says a senior law enforcement official. The Leahy letter, discovered 2 weeks ago in a search of mail quarantined from Capitol Hill, is believed to contain billions of potentially deadly anthrax spores. Authorities hope to minimize the loss of the highly fragile bacteria and preserve any forensic evidence on the envelope. Leahy says that there is enough anthrax in the letter to kill more than 100,000 people.

Anthrax genome decoded
Scientists have decoded the genome of the anthrax bacterium and are sharing their findings with law enforcement officials. Experts say the advance might speed a frustrating criminal investigation and promises to aid diagnosis and treatment of the disease. Timothy D. Read, a researcher at the Institute for Genomic Research in Rockville, Md., tells the Associated Press they can now compare the terrorism strain of anthrax to the standard laboratory Ames strain. The private laboratory is working under a $200,000 contract from the National Science Foundation to sequence genes from a strain of anthrax recovered from Florida resident Robert Stevens, 63, who died as a result of inhaling anthrax spores, probably from a letter mailed to his office.

Nov 27

Letter to Chilean doctor to be tested for anthrax
Federal officials say they are conducting extra tests to check findings from Chile and a Miami laboratory indicating that a letter received by a doctor in Santiago contained anthrax. Some federal law enforcement officials say they are doubtful that the letter is contaminated and think it might end up with thousands of false leads that have dogged the anthrax investigation. Tom Skinner, a CDC spokesman feels confident in the Miami tests but says the CDC will copy them and do further testing to determine the anthrax strain.

British anthrax hoaxes investigated
British police investigate two major anthrax hoaxes in which dozens of powder-filled packages were sent to government and business premises across London. Detective superintendent Bob Randall says police believe two separate hoaxes are behind nearly 90 letters and packages, all containing white powder and threatening notes, that were sent to a number of diplomatic, government, and corporate addresses over the past 6 weeks.

New lab security measures may thwart ongoing work
New concerns about bioterrorism are thwarting, at least temporarily, legitimate scientists in their quest to study germs with terrorism potential, says Paul Keim, a microbiologist at Northern Arizona University. Keim reports to the Associated Press that security at his lab has increased dramatically. Researchers at academic, corporate, and public health labs nationwide are facing similar situations. While most researchers support the stronger safeguards, some say their new security duties take time from the important work of diagnosing and treating diseases. CDC spokeswoman Kathy Harben says the CDC tries to ensure that agents are secure and safe but not restrict legitimate research.

Potential regulation of certain scientists, companies to be evaluated
Growing concern about bioterrorism prompts government officials, ethicists, and scientists to question whether or not the nation's biologists and biotechnology companies should be regulated, or regulate themselves, to restrict access to information and materials that might be used for biological weapons. According to a New York Times article, several proposals have come forth in congress to forbid some people, including certain foreigners, from working in laboratories that handle dangerous microbes. Dr. John D. Steinbruner, director of the Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland and the National Academy of Sciences are working at designing rules for the scientists aimed at deterring bioterrorism.

Pakistani scientists detained
Pakistan officials say they have detained two retired nuclear scientists after discovering in offices they had used in Afghanistan documents describing ways to use anthrax as a weapon. The scientists, Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood and Chaudry Abdul Majeed, were first questioned in October after American intelligence officers expressed concern about trips the two had made to the Afghan capital, Kabul. Both men worked for a private relief organization, Ummah Tameer-e-Nau, that operated in Afghanistan. Materials from the organization's Kabul offices examined by the New York Times describe the history of anthrax, diagrams, plans, gas masks and other suspicious items.

Smallpox virus can be homemade
The New York Times reports that a sophisticated adversary of the United States would not have to obtain natural smallpox virus but could make it from scratch. According to Robert L. Erwin, chief executive of Large Scale Biology Corporation, a biotech company that researches plant viruses, the complete genome sequence of the virus is freely available on the Internet and, in theory, genetic engineers could use the information to transform a related virus into smallpox. Concern about the potential of biotechnology surfaced earlier this year when Australian scientists reported that by transferring an immune system gene into the mousepox virus in an effort to design a contraceptive, they inadvertently created a highly lethal virus.

Nov 26

Leahy letter still unopened
The latest known anthrax letter, mailed to Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt, remains unopened while FBI, military, and civilian scientists try to devise the best way to handle the anthrax inside. The letter is under examination at a US Army laboratory in Fort Detrick, Md.

Nov 25

Ted Turner's NTI focuses on bioterrorism
A fledgling foundation, the Nuclear Threat Initiative, plans to increase spending to help deter bioterrorism and biological weapons, according to a New York Times report. The foundation is headed by media mogul Ted Turner and Sam Nunn, the former Democratic senator from Georgia. Foundation executives say they are shifting their spending emphasis because of the events of Sep 11 and afterward. The board has approved almost $5 million in initial grants and will ultimately spend about a third of its estimated budget on combating bioweapons and bioterrorism, officials say. The Sep 11 events have led to new opportunities to address preparedness and consequence management, says Margaret A. Hamburg, a former assistant secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services in the Clinton administration who heads the foundation's biological projects.

Circulation of Ames anthrax strain examined
Federal investigators are continuing efforts to trace the distribution of the Ames strain of anthrax used in the recent terrorist attacks. The strain appears to have circulated in only a small number of laboratories, according to Paul Keim, who worked on genetic mapping of anthrax strains at Northern Arizona University. One of its main distributors, according to scientists, was the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Md., which used the strain to test vaccines to protect US troops in case of biological attack.

Nov 24

Connecticut anthrax victim buried
The latest anthrax victim, Ottilie Lundgren, 94, is buried in Oxford, Conn. CDC officials say tests show that the anthrax that killed her was indistinguishable from the anthrax involved in other recent cases. Officials say they have checked more than 50 relatives and friends who had contact with Lundgren in recent days but have found no clues. Their search has included testing of the cars in which friends gave her rides and tests of trick-or-treaters who went to her home on Halloween.

Nov 23

Investigation of letter to Chile continues
Chilean judge Rosa Maria Maggi grants police greater freedom to investigate the mailing of a letter containing anthrax. Detectives are trying to learn who sent the letter to Santiago. The letter bore a Swiss postmark but a Florida return address, and was received by Dr. Antonio Banfi, who has specialized in infectious diseases.

Contained vaccination for smallpox recommened in CDC response plan
Health authorities should not force people to be vaccinated against smallpox, even if the virus reappears and begins to spread, says Dr. D.A. Henderson, the government's top bioterrorism advisor, as the CDC releases its smallpox response plan. The plan recommends isolating victims and vaccinating a "containment ring" of people exposed to an infected patient rather than mass vaccinations. The 261-page plan outlines preparation and management in the event of a bioterrorism attack involving smallpox.

Nov 2

Postal Union wants complete decontamination
Members of the American Postal Workers Union won't work in any postal facility that isn't completely free of anthrax or any other form of contamination, the newly installed union president says. Williams Burrus objects to the US Postal Service's policy of closing only a contaminated section of a facility that tests positive for anthrax. He says authorities don't know enough about how much contamination is too much.

Letter to Chile positive for anthrax
The CDC confirms that a letter sent from Switzerland to Chile was tainted with anthrax. The letter was sent to Dr Antonio Banfi, a pediatrician at a hospital in Santiago. Banfi, who opened the envelope, and 12 others nearby have not tested positive for exposure to anthrax spores but are being treated for the disease as a precaution, according to the Chilean Health Ministry. The Chile case is reportedly the first confirmed by US officials of the deadly bacteria in mail outside the United States since tainted letters raised worldwide alarm in the aftermath of the Sep 11 terrorist attacks.

Preliminary tests on Connecticut anthrax victim's mail negative
Negative preliminary tests on an elderly Connecticut widow's mail, her mailbox, and local post office facilities leave investigators perplexed over how she could have contracted the anthrax that killed her. Connecticut Gov. John Rowland says further tests will be done on the home of Ottilie Lundgren, 94, who died of inhalation anthrax. Lundgren is the fifth person to die of the disease since the bacteria began turning up in the mail last month and is the second anthrax case with no apparent connection to any tainted letters that were mailed to government and media offices.

Nov 21

Elderly Connecticut woman dies of anthrax
Ottilie Lundgren, 94, becomes the nation's fifth anthrax fatality. Authorities seal off Lundgren's home in Oxford, a town of about 8,600 in southwest Connecticut, and look into her background for clues that might help crack the case. A longtime Oxford resident whose husband died in 1977, Lundgren by all accounts led a sedate life, especially after she gave up driving last year. She traveled little and had no apparent connection with US Postal Service or government facilities, according to Connecticut Gov. John Rowland. The FBI is treating the case as a criminal investigation, according to Lisa Bull, an FBI agent in New Haven. Lundgren died at Griffin Hospital in Derby the same day the CDC confirmed that she had inhalation anthrax. CDC spokeswoman Nicole Coffin says testing so far has shown that the strain of anthrax that killed Lundgren was similar to anthrax found in other recent cases.

Postal Union president speaks out
In Washington, the president of a major postal employees union says he will advise members to refuse to work in buildings where any trace of anthrax remains. Nationwide, the US Postal Service has tested 278 facilities for anthrax and found some contamination at 21 of them. Nineteen have been decontaminated and reopened.

Nov 20

High anthrax concentration in mailbag containing Leahy letter
A sample taken from a plastic evidence bag containing a still-unopened letter to Sen. Patrick Leahy contains at least 23,000 anthrax spores, enough for more than two lethal doses, a federal law enforcement official says. The official says there is three times as much anthrax in the single sample from the bag as in any of the other 600 bags of mail examined by the FBI before it found the Leahy letter.

Anthrax traces in Kennedy and Dodd offices
Traces of anthrax are found in the office mailrooms of Sens. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Christopher Dodd, D-Conn. Officials suspect the anthrax got there through contact with anthrax-bearing letters mailed to Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., or Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D. So far, anthrax traces have turned up in 13 senators' offices besides Daschle's, whose office is the only one known to have opened an anthrax letter. The Kennedy and Dodd offices are both in the Russell Senate Office Building.

Pentagon mail delivery resumed, with precautions
The Pentagon resumes mail delivery and begins to take new precautions against anthrax-tainted mail. All mail will now be opened, visually inspected, X-rayed and tested for biological or chemical materials, says Pentagon spokesman Glen Flood. Once checked, mail will be held for up to three days to await test results before delivery inside the building. A private contractor hired by the Army will open and inspect mail, and the Defense Protective Service will X-ray it and test it for chemicals or biological materials.

CDC to test suspicious letter to Chile
The CDC plans to test a substance found in a letter that the Chilean government said was tainted with anthrax. Chilean officials said the letter was from an American company in Switzerland to a company in downtown Santiago. It declined to identify either company.

Medicines looked at for potential as smallpox weapons
Army scientists are sifting through hundreds of potential virus medicines developed by drug companies to see if any might work against smallpox. Twenty-one drugs already identified this way can kill the virus in a test tube. Besides searching for medicines, scientists are working to decode smallpox's genes, create quick tests for infection, and find new ways to check their hypotheses in lab animals. The Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Md., and the CDC oversee most of this work. It takes place at the CDC's high-security labs, the only place in the United States where smallpox is kept.

Nov 19

Dirksen and Russell buildings reopen
The Dirksen Senate Office Building and the Russell Senate Office Building are reopened after being swept for anthrax contamination, three days after the discovery of the latest letter suspected of containing the bacteria. The Hart building remains closed. The Dirksen and Russell buildings were closed after an apparently contaminated letter mailed to Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., was discovered in quarantined mail.

Six nations believed to be developing biological weapons
The United States identifies Iraq and five other countries as states that are developing germ warfare programs, but refuses to say whether any may have assisted Osama bin Laden in his quest for biological weapons. John R. Bolton, undersecretary of state for arms control, says the existence of Iraq's program is beyond dispute and that the United States strongly suspects North Korea, Libya, Syria, Iran, and Sudan of developing programs. Speaking to a meeting of the 144 nations that signed the 1972 treaty banning biological weapons, Bolton says that the United States believes North Korea has developed and produced, and may have weaponized, biological agents.

Opening of Leahy letter delayed
The FBI says that opening of the tainted letter sent to Sen. Patrick Leahy is being delayed so that FBI and Army scientists and a panel of outside experts can develop a strategy to maximize its forensic value. CNN quotes sources as saying the Leahy letter may have been misdirected through the mail system and sent to the State Department by mistake.

More knowledge could have saved two anthrax victims
If public health officials had known more about the threat of anthrax in the nation's capital, they could have saved the lives of the two postal workers who died of inhalational anthrax, Washington's chief medical officer, Dr. Ivan Walks, tells CNN. Walks says that if health authorities had known a few weeks ago what they know today, they also would have done more to help emergency department physicians identify anthrax patients. He says officials would have closely communicated with regional health departments to get to anthrax victims sooner.

Web sites peddling anthrax remedies receive warning
The Federal Trade Commission warns 40 Web sites to stop touting alternative treatments for anthrax or get off the Internet. The FTC discovered sites advertising oregano oil, thyme, zinc, mineral water, and other dietary supplements as treatments or prevention for anthrax, smallpox, and other biological and chemical threats. The California Department of Health Services, 30 state attorneys general, and the FDA contributed to the investigation. Web sites that don't stop their fraudulent claims could face penalties of up to $11,000 per violation, says FDA Enforcement Director John Taylor in a press release.

Nov 18

Smallpox vaccine desired by majority of Americans
Three-fifths of Americans say they would want a smallpox vaccination if it were widely available, according to an Associated Press poll that suggests continued nervousness about bioterrorism. About half of the respondents say they are concerned about the threat of a smallpox attack and think last month's anthrax attacks are the beginning of an extended campaign. The US government is stockpiling the smallpox vaccine in case of terrorist attacks.

Nov 17

NYC subway system devoid of anthrax so far
Investigators searching for the source of the anthrax that killed a New York City resident in October have found no evidence yet of the bacteria in the New York subway system, a city health department official reports. Dr. Neal Cohen says the CDC informed his department that anthrax tests so far have come back negative. Health and law enforcement officials have been working for weeks to unravel the mystery of how Kathy Nguyen, who lived in the Bronx and worked at a hospital in Manhattan, contracted the fatal anthrax infection. As part of that effort, they conducted tests on the subway line that she often took.

Nov 16

Unopened letter to Leahy suspicious for anthrax
Federal investigators searching through unopened, quarantined mail sent to Capitol Hill find a letter addressed to Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., that may contain anthrax. If preliminary tests indicating anthrax are confirmed, the letter will be the first anthrax-tainted letter found in Washington since a letter to Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., was opened Oct 15. The letter to Leahy bears the same handwriting and Trenton postmark as the Daschle letter and anthrax-tainted letters that were sent to Tom Brokaw of NBC News and to the New York Post. Investigators say the second letter may offer fresh clues to the identity of the sender. Dr. Greg Martin, a physician who advises Capitol police on anthrax, says it is unlikely that the contaminated letter sickened anyone, as it has been out of circulation for at least 5 weeks.

Research on deadly microbes at local lab troubles New Mexico residents
Residents near the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico say they are uneasy with a plan to bring in live, deadly microbes for research. US Department of Energy officials want the lab, known as the birthplace of the atomic bomb, to create a facility where scientists can work with infectious agents such as plague, anthrax, and tuberculosis. Peggy Prince of Peace Action New Mexico worries that the public could be endangered if anything goes wrong at the lab. More than 200 similar research facilities, called biosafety level 3, or BSL-3, labs currently operate around the country. The lab's Bioscience Division already has done some detective work for the government on the recent anthrax attacks, using DNA identification technologies. Officials say they hope to have the lab running by spring 2003 if it is recommended by an Energy Department review team.

CDC's Koplan pitches public health as recipient of funding
CDC Director Jeffrey Koplan, MD, says the nation's response to bioterrorism has been hampered by long neglect of the public health system. The country's readiness for such attacks is weakened by old labs, crumbling buildings, and outdated technology that slows the detection of outbreaks, Koplan says in an Associated Press interview. Congress is considering providing about $3 billion to improve bioterrorism preparedness, and Koplan says he hopes a large chunk of that money goes to improving CDC facilities. He is pressing for expansion of the CDC's Epidemic Intelligence Service.

Al-Quaida knows formula for deadly poison
The London Times reports that Osama bin Laden's al-Quaida network had a formula for making ricin, one of the deadliest known poisons. The newspaper says it found instructions for making ricin in an al-Quaida safehouse in Kabul. A powder derived from the seeds and pods of the castor bean plant, ricin may be inhaled, ingested, or injected, and it has no known antidote, according to the report.

Administration says US smallpox stocks to be retained
The New York Times reports that the Bush administration, reversing a course set two decades ago, has decided that the world's remaining stocks of smallpox should be retained until scientists develop new vaccines and treatments for the disease, a process that could take years. Administration officials say the remaining American smallpox samples, which are stored at a CDC laboratory in Atlanta, should not be destroyed until the nation develops at least two licensed antiviral drugs, a vaccine that can be taken by the entire population, and other defensive measures. Russia also has smallpox strains stored at a research laboratory in Siberia. A committee of scientific experts is scheduled to consider the question of destroying the virus early next month. The new American position is expected to be unveiled formally at that session, if not before, officials say.

Nov 15

More than one anthrax letter at American Media?
Investigators say anthrax spores have been found throughout the headquarters of a tabloid publisher, leading local health officials to suspect it received more than one tainted letter. It is unlikely that just one letter had spread spores to all three floors of the 68,000-square-foot American Media Inc. building in Boca Raton, says Tim O'Connor of the Palm Beach County Health Department. The CDC says that people who visited the American Media building as far back as August should take a 2-month regimen of ciprofloxacin or doxycycline to protect against anthrax.

$3.2 billion Kennedy-Frist bioterrorism bill introduced
Sens. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Bill Frist, R-Tenn., introduce a bill to authorize spending $3.2 billion to combat bioterrorism. The bill would authorize $1.5 billion for state and local preparedness in fiscal 2002, including hospital preparedness, and $400 million to improve oversight of the nation's food supply. The measure also would increase federal regulation of those who work with germs that could be used in bioterrorism. HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson says he supports the programs the bill calls for but is not sure about the cost. The Bush administration has proposed $1.5 billion for counter-bioterrorism efforts for fiscal 2002.

Most of 32,000 taking precautionary antibiotics told to stop
The CDC says about 32,000 people have taken antibiotics as a precaution since the first anthrax cases were identified more than a month ago. Doctors advised most of those people to stop taking the drugs after investigators concluded they were not at risk.

Cipro demand tapers
Demand for ciprofloxacin, an antibiotic used against anthrax, has tapered off in Washington state after an earlier spike spurred by the anthrax attacks, according to a study by Premera Blue Cross, one of Washington's largest health insurers.

Nov 14

Dear Santa letters to be irradiated
Hundreds of thousands of children's letters to Santa Claus will be irradiated to guard against anthrax, the Postal Service says. Postal spokeswoman Pat McGovern says the mail will be irradiated so that people can feel safe about dealing with letters that might otherwise fit the profile of mail to avoidstrange handwriting, no return address, and taped envelopes. The Postal Service in New York usually receives around 400,000 letters addressed to Santa Claus either at the North Pole or the Bronx Zoo, where several reindeer live.

Public health system resources nearing capacity
Health officials across the nation are reported to be swamped as they concentrate on anthrax testing and emergency preparedness. Dr. Georges Benjamin, president of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, tells the Associated Press that agencies are getting dangerously close to capacity. The need to shift resources to deal with bioterrorism concerns, sometimes at the expense of other public health work, highlights a lack of funding that has been eroding the nation's public health infrastructure for decades, according to Benjamin. At the Maryland Health Department, employees have fallen behind in entering computer data and monitoring other diseases. Similar reports come from numerous states.

Natural treatments for anthrax hold little promise
There is no evidence that alternative medicines, including some promoted on the Internet, are effective in treating anthrax or other biological agents, a leading government scientist says. Certain natural treatments could interfere with proven antibiotics, and there is little reason to believe they hold promise in responding to bioterrorist attacks, according to Dr. Stephen E. Straus, director of the national Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

Nov 13

Sixth inhalational anthrax victim discharged from hospital
The last of six people to survive inhalational anthrax comes home after 25 days in a suburban Washington, DC, hospital. Leroy Richmond, a postal worker at the city's contaminated central facility, says he is grateful to doctors who began treating him for anthrax even before it was confirmed.

Search of impounded mail begins
The State Department starts searching for anthrax-laced letters among its impounded mail after 8 of 55 samples taken from a mail-sorting facility in Sterling, Va., test positive. The tests support the theory that a letter like the one sent to Sen. Tom Daschle moved through the mail system, spokesman Richard Boucher says. State Department officials became convinced that such a letter passed through their Sterling facility after anthrax was found in the eight spots there, including six on a single automated mail sorter.

Anthrax traces spur testing at Howard University
Eight mail facilities at Howard University in Washington, DC, undergo precautionary testing after the school's main mailroom tests positive for trace amounts of anthrax. It is the first known case of anthrax contamination at a nongovernmental facility in the Washington area. All eight mail facilities at Howard received mail directly from Washington's Brentwood Road mail-sorting plant. University spokeswoman Sheila Harvey says the campus mail facilities were closed, and a private contractor is cleaning them.

Pennsylvania residences of two Pakistanis raided
Acting on a tip, more than 30 federal agents, backed up by hazardous material crews, raid two residences in Chester, Pa. The homes belong to two city officials, Dr. Irshad Shaikh, the Chester city health commissioner, and Asif Kazi, the city accountant, both Pakistan natives. Dr. Shaikh also holds a faculty appointment at the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health. Preliminary anthrax tests are negative, and the occupants are allowed to return in the evening.

Report indicates anthrax more treatable than previously thought
Review of the 10 recent cases of inhalational anthrax indicates that the disease is treatable if doctors recognize it early and treat it aggressively with appropriate antibiotics, experts say in an editorial in the Journal of the American Medical Association. According to Anthony Fauci, MD, and H. Clifford Lane, MD, of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the fact that six of these patients survived gives hope that the published mortality rates of 86% to 97% for inhalational anthrax may no longer be accurate.

Nov 12

National antiterrorism panel gives government poor grades
The government's response to the recent anthrax attacks receives generally poor grades from members of a national antiterrorism panel. The panel, meeting in Arlington, Va., says the CDC and state and local agencies lack the testing laboratories needed to respond adequately to a bioterrorism crisis. Kenneth Shine, MD, a commission member and president of the National Academy of Science's Institute of Medicine, says a national investment in the CDC and at local levels will be required to deal with bioterrorism. Panel members say the lack of lab capability delayed the discovery of anthrax in government buildings. The commission, formed by the federal government in 1999, studies how well the nation is prepared for biological and other terrorist acts.

Anthrax found in three more Senate offices
Trace amounts of anthrax are found in the offices of three more senators, bringing to 11 the number of senators' suites found in recent days to be contaminated. The most recent discoveries are in the offices of Sens. Richard Lugar, R-Ind.; Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.; and Jon Corzine, D-N.J. All 11 are in the Hart Senate office building, where an anthrax-filled letter was opened Oct. 15.

Trenton postal facility cleaned
Officials take advantage of the Veterans Day holiday weekend to clean a postal facility in the Trenton, N.J., area after one of 19 samples tested for anthrax there came back inconclusive.

Nov 11

Afghanistan as possible source of anthrax noted by Rumsfeld
On CBS-TV's "Face the Nation," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says Osama bin Laden likely has some chemical or biological weapons, and US forces have bombed some sites in Afghanistan that could have been involved in producing them. The United States has identified several sites in Afghanistan where al-Qaida may have been producing weapons of mass destruction. Meanwhile, the New York Times reports that the United States has identified three possible chemical or biological weapons sites in Afghanistan used by al-Qaida but has not bombed them.

More drugs may hold promise as anthrax antidote
Several common drugs that are not currently used against anthrax deserve to be tested for that purpose, says Dr. Gerald Weissmann, director of the Biotechnology Study Center at New York University Medical Center in New York. Weissmann, past president of the American College of Rheumatology, tells physicians at the group's annual meeting in San Francisco that the antibiotics currently being used to treat anthrax, such as doxycycline, ciprofloxacin, and penicillin, were chosen on the basis of a scant amount of research in animals. Meanwhile, other drugs that have shown promise in the laboratory have yet to be adequately tested. Weissmann says that drugs such as the angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor captopril, the antimalarial drug chloroquine, and the rheumatoid arthritis drug anakinra have shown effectiveness in inhibiting certain aspects of anthrax.

Nov 10

Anthrax in five more Senate offices
Trace amounts of anthrax have been found in five more Senate offices in the same building where a letter containing the bacteria was opened Oct 15. Capitol Police Lt. Dan Nichols says anthrax spores were found in the offices of Sens. Max Baucus, D-Mont.; Russ Feingold, D-Wis.; Joseph Leiberman, D-Conn.; Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., and Arlen Specter, R-Pa. Police believe letters delivered to other offices in the Hart Senate Office Building may have been contaminated by the anthrax-filled letter sent to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D.

Nov 9

Four NJ Postal facilities positive for anthrax
Postal Service officials say four more postal facilities in New Jersey have tested positive for anthrax. The facilities named are Palmer Square, Rocky Hill, Trenton Station E, and Jackson. A total of about 20 postal facilities now have tested positive for anthrax.

Investigators think Daschle letter not solely to blame for Washington anthrax
Investigators think Postal investigators in Washington announce that other mail containing anthrax bacteria was probably sent there last month in addition to the letter sent to the office of Sen. Tom Daschle. The basis for this view, according to John Nolan, deputy postmaster general, is that CDC experts say it is unlikely that the mail handler at a State Department postal center in Virginia who contracted inhalational anthrax could have been infected by a letter that had merely come in contact with the one sent to Daschle.

Closure of Morgan mail center denied
A federal judge refuses a request by the New York Metro Area Postal Union to shut down the Morgan Processing and Distribution Center. In late October, anthrax was found in four high-speed mail-sorting machines at the station, at 29th Street and Ninth Avenue. Postal authorities say the facility has been adequately cleared of anthrax spores and is safe for workers.

NYC subway system to be sampled for anthrax
New York City officials announce they will work with the CDC to look for anthrax in part of the city subway system. Sampling will be focused on a route that Kathy T. Nguyen, the Bronx hospital worker who died of anthrax last week, is thought to have used in commuting from her home in the South Bronx to her stockroom job at the Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital on the Upper East Side.

FBI thinks anthrax perpetrator is US lone wolf
The FBI is increasingly convinced that the person behind the recent anthrax attacks is a lone wolf in the United States who has no links to terrorist groups but is an opportunist using the Sep 11 hijackings to vent his rage, according to a Los Angeles Times report. The FBI hopes its portrait of the perpetratoras as an antisocial loner with some peculiar mannerisms in his handwriting and phrasingwill help lead them to whoever mailed at least three anthrax-laced letters and killed four people. From consultations with James R. Fitzgerald, an FBI profiler who worked on the Unabomber case, investigators believe the anthrax attacker has at least some background in science.

NJ physician claims he might have anthrax
The CDC is reported to be looking into a claim by a New Jersey cardiologist that he might have contracted cutaneous anthrax in the first week of Sepember. Should the case of Dr. Gerald M. Weisfogel turn out to have been anthrax, it would be of considerable interest to investigators. It preceded the first batch of anthrax letters sent out on or around Sep 18 and would indicate a new and earlier source of exposure. Dr. Susan Goldstein, a CDC employee who now works at the New Jersey Department of Health on the anthrax attacks, says a sample of Weisfogel's blood is on its way to the agency's headquarters in Atlanta to be tested.

Nov 8

Bush lukewarm on wide-scale vaccination for smallpox
While touring the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, President George W. Bush says he is hesitant to support universal vaccination of Americans against smallpox because of the risk of adverse reactions, including deaths. Bush says he is "looking at different options" for protecting people against smallpox.

Little headway in anthrax investigation
In a nationally televised speech about the war on terrorism, President Bush acknowledges that the investigation of the anthrax-by-mail attacks has made little headway.

Number of people treated, buildings tested for anthrax reported
About 32,000 people have been told to take antibiotics in the anthrax crisis so far, and a 60-day course has been recommended for 5,000 people, according to the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). The report says 300 postal and other facilities have been tested for anthrax spores.

Treatment side effects in Florida workers
A survey of 490 Florida workers who were given antibiotics because of possible anthrax exposure showed that 19% had one or more adverse side effects, such as itching, breathing problems, or swelling of the face, neck, or throat, according to MMWR. Six people sought medical attention and two were hospitalized, but their problems were not clearly linked to the antibiotic treatment. Julie Gerberding of the CDC says the side effects reported are typical for ciprofloxacin and doxycycline.

Bellmawr postal facility reopened
The Bellmawr postal facility near Camden, N.J., is reopened after the Postal Service and a union agree to the step while further tests for anthrax contamination are conducted at the facility. A federal judge closed the facility Nov 7 in response to a union request stemming from the case of a worker who contracted cutaneous anthrax in October.

Abortion groups receive powder-laden mail
About 200 clinics and abortion-rights groups receive Federal Express packages containing powder and, in some cases, a letter from the Army of God saying that the powder is anthrax. Eleanor Smeal of the Feminist Majority Foundation says that only about 10 of the packages were opened.

HarvardRWJ bioterrorism poll results out
In a national poll, 82% of respondents say it is unlikely they or their families will contract anthrax, but 37% say they have started taking precautions when opening mail. Five percent say they have obtained a prescription for or bought antibiotics out of concern about bioterrorism. No national figure is trusted by a majority of the respondents to provide reliable information about bioterrorism, but 48% say they trust CDC Director Jeffrey Koplan and 44% trust Surgeon General David Satcher. The poll by Harvard and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation included 1,015 adults and was conducted Oct 24 to 28.

NEJM report on first anthrax case
The New England Journal of Medicine electronically publishes a case report on the first recent anthrax victim, Robert Stevens of Florida, who died Oct 5. The report says his clinical manifestations of inhalational anthrax were typical. The earliest clue to the diagnosis was hemorrhagic spinal fluid with gram-positive bacilli.

High alert relaxed
Attorney General John Ashcroft says that "two periods of extremely high threat have passed" without additional terrorist attacks, implying that the high alert declared last week has been relaxed.

Nov 7

Bellmawr postal facility closed
A federal judge closes the Postal Service's Bellmawr Processing and Distribution Center near Camden, N.J., in response to a request from postal workers concerned that the facility is not free of anthrax. The postal workers union asked the judge to close the center after a contractor cleaned the wrong machine. A 54-year-old worker at the facility was reported to have cutaneous anthrax Oct 31.

Lucrative award for leads in anthrax cases
The Postal Service increases its reward for information regarding the anthrax attacks from $1 million to $1.25 million.

Pakistan 'anthrax' material tests negative
US tests of material from the American consulate in Lahore, Pakistan, show no anthrax, according to White House spokesman Ari Fleischer. Preliminary tests at a lab in Pakistan were positive for anthrax. Where the tested material came from is not revealed, but concern has focused on the mail distribution system.

Smallpox vaccine at $2 per dose still possible
Three small vaccine manufacturers that were eliminated in the first round of bidding to produce smallpox vaccine say they could produce the vaccine for the government's targeted price of about $2 a dose, substantially lower than the prices contemplated by the large manufacturers remaining in the bidding, according to a New York Times report.

911 call from PO worker who died of anthrax
Reports reveal that Thomas Morris Jr., one of two Washington postal workers who died of inhalational anthrax in October, called 911 hours before he died and said he suspected he had anthrax because two colleagues working near him had handled a letter with powder in it. Morris made the call Sunday, Oct 21; he died Oct 22. In the call, Morris said the episode had occurred Saturday, Oct 13, and that he was never told whether the letter contained anthrax or not. He said he went to a physician the following Thursday, and the physician thought his illness was from a virus. Deborah Willhite, a Postal Service official, says the letter Morris spoke of was turned over to the FBI and tested negative for anthrax, and the postal workers were told of this.

Nov 6

Anthrax arrives in Russia in US mailbag
The US consulate in Yekaterinburg, Russia, reports that one of six diplomatic mailbags received from Washington Oct 25 tested positive for anthrax spores. The consulate asked Russian health authorities to test the mail Oct 26 after a State Department mailroom employee in Virginia contracted anthrax. Yekaterinburg, formerly called Sverdlovsk, was the site of an anthrax disaster due to an accidental release in 1979.

Number of US labs with anthrax in question
James T. Caruso, an FBI counterterrorism official, tells a Senate subcommittee that the agency still doesn't know how many US laboratories handle anthrax, though 4,000 special agents are working on the investigation. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., has introduced a bill to tighten the regulation of potential biological weapons.

Nguyen's workplace declared clean
The Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital reopens after being declared free of anthrax. The hospital was closed after staff member Kathy T. Nguyen contracted inhalational anthrax. She died of the disease Oct 31.

Estimated cost of smallpox vaccine stockpile rises
HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson says it may cost far more than the $509 million he estimated to buy 246 million doses of smallpox vaccine. The government hoped to pay a little more than $2 a dose, but proposals from drug companies are much higher, though less than $8 a dose, Thompson says. Three companies remain in the bidding.

Nov 5

Piles of impounded await irradiation, screening
Government officials say millions of letters that were impounded after the anthrax-laced letter to Sen. Tom Daschle was opened on Oct 15 still have not been examined. Hence, they don't know if the anthrax contamination of postal facilities in Washington, DC, New York, and New Jersey all came from the Daschle letter or if other letters contained anthrax. Postal officials say the impounded letters will all be screened for anthrax after they have been irradiated. The irradiation process has been started, but officials are not predicting how soon the screening will begin. Of three anthrax-tainted letters that have been found, the Daschle letter has been of most concern because it contained a significant amount in particles fine enough to become airborne.

Longworth Building reopened
The Longworth House Office Building in Washington reopens after being closed for 2 weeks for decontamination. Three Congress members' offices that were contaminated remain closed, however.

Some anthrax suspicions in Washington now negated
Tests reveal no evidence of anthrax in Washington buildings that house the mailrooms of the FDA and the Voice of America. Tests last week indicated a possibility of anthrax, but confirmatory tests were negative, officials report.

Pentagon PO decontaminated
A small branch post office in the Pentagon has been decontaminated after anthrax spores were found in two mailboxes there. One of the two boxes was unassigned; a sailor who rented the other one has been seen at Bethesda Naval Hospital.

NJ inhalational anthrax victim released
Norma Wallace, a postal worker who contracted inhalational anthrax at the Hamilton Township, N.J., mail-processing center is released from the hospital. At a news conference, she urges Americans not to panic. When she was hospitalized Oct 18, doctors estimated her chance of survival at 50%.

State Department anthrax victim improves
The State Department worker who was hospitalized with inhalational anthrax is reported to be out of intensive care and "improving steadily."

Nov 4

CDC smallpox response teams formed
The CDC announces it is preparing teams of staff members to respond to smallpox outbreaks. The teams, consisting of physicians, epidemiologists, and laboratorians, have been vaccinated against smallpox and are being trained to identify and contain outbreaks. James Hughes, MD, director of the National Center for Infectious Diseases, says smallpox experts were sent to evaluate cases three times in October, but none of the patients had the disease.

Anthrax traces on package to Giuliani
Traces of anthrax are reported to have been found on a package containing a videotape sent to New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani from the office of NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw. Health officials say they believe the tape was cross-contaminated from the anthrax-laced letter sent to Brokaw's office in Sepember.

Washington VA mailroom has anthrax traces
Traces of anthrax have turned up in the mailroom of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Washington, DC, VA officials report. The center received mail from the Brentwood postal facility in Washington, which processed the anthrax-tainted letter sent to Sen. Tom Daschle.

Hart Building decontamination about to begin
Also in Washington, workers prepare to decontaminate the Hart Senate Office Building with chlorine dioxide gas.

Anthrax vaccine sought from abroad
The New York Times reports that US officials have begun looking for anthrax vaccine overseas in the face of the continuing unavailability of the American-made vaccine. The only American manufacturer of anthrax vaccine is waiting for FDA approval to resume shipments, which were stopped when the FDA found violations at the company plant in December 1999.

Nov 3

Letter-to-letter spread of anthrax?
In view of cases in which postal workers were exposed to anthrax even though the envelopes they handled were not opened, President Bush says anthrax "apparently can be passed from one letter to another."

Three immigrants detained in NJ raid
In New Jersey, three men are detained after FBI raids on apartments in Trenton and nearby Hamilton. The Immigration and Naturalization Service is holding the men because of questions about their immigration status.

Treasury Department letter tested
In Washington, Treasury Department officials isolate a suspicious letter and submit it for testing. The letter has the same Trenton postmark as anthrax-laced mail sent to New York and Washington and has similar handwriting.

Nov 2

Confirmed anthrax cases now number 17
The CDC reports that a New York Post employee's preliminary diagnosis of cutaneous anthrax has been confirmed, making it the 17th confirmed case in the outbreak. The employee's name is being withheld.

Anthrax in NJ accouting firm mail bin
Anthrax is found in a mail bin at the Hamilton, N.J., accounting firm where a woman who has cutaneous anthrax works. Health officials say they don't believe the bacteria became airborne.

Public's help enlisted in anthrax hunt
President Bush and other administration officials appeal to the public to help investigators track down the perpetrators of the anthrax attacks. FBI Director Robert Mueller urges the public to report suspicious behavior and to study photos of the anthrax envelopes to determine if the handwriting resembles that of anyone they know. Officials say they have found no forensic evidence such as fingerprints or clothing fibers on the three known envelopes and letters.

Supreme Court reconveness
US Supreme Court justices return to their courtroom following its decontamination.

Anthrax in Pakistan
Overseas, Pakistan's largest newspaper evacuates some of its editorial offices after anthrax is found on a letter.

Anthrax in India
In India, the health secretary of a western state says that powder found in an envelope in a government office has tested positive for anthrax and will be examined further.

Nov 1

Anthrax found in Kansas City
Preliminary tests indicate anthrax contamination at a stamp distribution center in Kansas City, Mo. Health officials there say the contamination most likely came from the Brentwood postal facility in Washington, DC. More than 170 Kansas City postal workers are given antibiotics.

New York, Washington, Florida anthrax identical
The anthrax organisms that killed New York City resident Kathy T. Nguyen are indistinguishable from those that were mailed to Sen. Tom Daschle and to media companies in Florida and New York, reports epidemiologist Stephen Ostroff of the CDC. But the source of Nguyen's infection remains unknown. A co-worker's suspicious lesion has been determined not to be anthrax.

More Florida anthrax
In Florida, anthrax is found in a sixth post office.

Anthrax in Lithuania
In Lithuania, a laboratory confirms that traces of anthrax were found in a mailbag from the US Embassy, the first such case in Europe. The embassy mailroom is sealed off and the 120 embassy employees are offered antibiotics.

Anthrax at FDA headquarters
Anthrax spores have been found in four mailrooms at the FDA's headquarters in Rockville, Md., according to a New York Times report.

Two more NYC mail-sorting machines contaminated
In New York City, the Postal Service says tests have detected anthrax on two more mail-sorting machines at the Morgan Station center, where four machines previously were found to be contaminated. Spores were also found on a dust-extracting machine not connected to the building's ventilation system.

CDC confirms 16 anthrax cases
The CDC says it has confirmed 16 cases of anthrax infection, including 10 inhalational and 6 cutaneous cases. New York City health officials, using a looser standard, have confirmed 3 additional cutaneous cases.

For other months' installments, go to the Bioterrorism Watch index page