Anthrax Detection Agencies Need To Validate Sampling Activities In Order To Increase Confidence In Negative Results PDF Download

In September and October 2001, contaminated letters laced with Bacillus anthracis, or anthrax spores,1 were sent through the mail to two senators, Thomas Daschle and Patrick Leahy, and members of the media. The letters led to the first cases of anthrax disease related to bioterrorism in the United States. The postal facilities in New Jersey and Washington, D.C., that processed the senators letters became heavily contaminated Other mail routed through these facilities, as well as additional ones in the postal network, also became contaminated. Numerous federal facilities in the Washington, D.C., area the U.S. Supreme Court, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and main State Department buildings were also later found to be contaminated.