Around 75 scientists working for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) at a lab in Atlanta, Georgia, may have accidentally been exposed to live anthrax.
The CDC have provided all potentially exposed staff with antibiotics and they are being carefully monitored for any signs of the disease, as the situation is investigated internally and by the FBI.
The possible exposure within the lab is not believed to have posed a risk to other CDC staff, family members, or the general public.
In a statement, the CDC said:
“Although the investigation continues, early reports show that one of its Roybal campus biosafety level 3 (BSL3) labs was preparing B. anthracis samples for research in other CDC labs at lower biosafety levels to yield new means of detecting dangerous pathogens in environmental samples. However, the lab used a procedure that did not adequately inactivate the samples.
“The potentially infectious samples were moved and used for experimentation in three CDC Roybal campus laboratories not equipped to handle live B. anthracis. Workers, believing the samples were inactivated, were not wearing adequate personal protective equipment while handling the material.
“Lab safety investigators also determined that, sometime between June 6 and June 13, procedures used in two of the three labs may have aerosolized the spores. Environmental sampling was done, lab and hallway areas were decontaminated and laboratories will be re-opened when safe to operate.”
The possible exposure was discovered in 13 June when colonies of live bacteria were found on the original bacterial plates when they were gathered for disposal.