As anthrax scares stranded passengers, emptied buildings and mobilized biohazard teams around the world, the threat of bioterrorism on a global scale loomed larger yesterday after Argentina announced the second case outside the US of mail contaminated with the bacteria.
Most of the hundreds of reports worldwide of tainted letters and suspicious powders were quickly dismissed as false alarms, and pranksters have been detained in Australia, the Netherlands and Spain.
But bioterror fears appeared more credible after Argentina's health minister held a nationally televised news conference Friday to announce the second confirmed case of anthrax discovered in mail outside the US.
Hector Lombardo told journalists that a travel brochure mailed from Florida to Argentina tested positive for anthrax spores but said nobody was exposed.
The first such case was confirmed earlier this week in Kenya, where a doctor received an anthrax-tainted letter from Atlanta. The doctor and his family were in good health but were being treated with antibiotics.
In Japan, where 12 people died and thousands were sickened when a cult spread poison gas on the Tokyo subway in 1995, media questioned yesterday whether authorities were prepared to fend off bioterrorist attacks.
"Delays in taking emergency countermeasures have been blatant," ran the headline in the mass-circulation Sankei newspaper, commenting on a government plan to earmark funds in next year's budget to pay for vaccines for smallpox and other pathogens used as biological weapons.
Experts say relatively few Japanese medical facilities are able to test for anthrax. Officials at the Health Ministry swamped with requests for guidelines on handling mail ended up translating a list put out by the US Center for Disease Control.Police in the western Japanese city of Osaka reported yesterday that a suspicious powder-laden letter sent to the US Consulate General earlier this week was determined to be untainted.
Elsewhere in the region, Malaysia's home minister warned that the government would pursue hoaxers blamed for starting anthrax scares that have resulted in six people checking into hospitals since Thursday. Nobody has tested positive for the bacteria so far.
"These people are taking advantage of the situation to create chaos," Deputy Home Minister Chor Chee Heung was quoted as saying by The Star newspaper. "Serious action will be taken, and this may not be limited to existing laws."
Local media reported that gloves and masks are being issued next week to postal employees in some Malaysian states.
In Melbourne, more than 100 passengers on a Virgin Blue flight were quarantined for over two hours after a powdery substance was discovered on an aircraft that arrived Friday night. An airline spokeswoman said the substance was removed from the aircraft but was later discovered to be harmless.
Substantial backups at mail sorting centers were reported in New Zealand after white powder spilled from a postal bag at a center in Dunedin.
Firefighters, police and ambulance staff were called after two workers were exposed to the powder. The men were isolated, then washed in a decontamination shower and taken to hospital by ambulance. The powder was later determined to be a harmless substance.
US authorities disclosed two more cases of anthrax exposure this week -- a New York newspaper employee and a New Jersey-area postal worker -- bringing the total to eight.
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