U.S. Military Accidentally Shipped Live Anthrax to Nine States and Overseas

The United States Military has accidentally shipped live anthrax samples to locations in as many as nine states and overseas. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that it will be investigating the mishap.

According to the military officials, they were supposed to send dead spores to government and commercial laboratories. Instead, the military sent out live samples to 19 separate military and civilians labs (14 private labs, four military ones and Stanford University). No one working at these labs has shown any signs of an anthrax infection. The officials stated that at least 26 people are taking antibiotics as a preventive measure.

"At this time we do not suspect any risk to the general public," CDC spokeswoman Kathy Harben said Wednesday.

The samples were sent from Dugway Proving Ground, a military facility based in Utah, Col. Steve Warren, a spokesman for the Pentagon said. Warren added that one lab in Maryland and the military lab located in South Korea have confirmed that they received live spores. These spores were sent out from the same batch. The other locations have not discovered live anthrax in their samples so far.

"There is no known risk to the general public, and there are no suspected or confirmed cases of anthrax infection in potentially exposed lab workers," Warren said.

The Army's top general, Ray Odierno stated that the mistake was not due to human error. Odierno, who is the Army chief of staff, said that the mistake occurred during the killing process.

Aside from Maryland and South Korea, the samples also ended up in Texas, Wisconsin, Delaware, New Jersey, Tennessee, New York, California and Virginia.

 The CDC will be collecting samples from all 19 locations. The CDC is actively working with state and federal agencies on this investigation.