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Bioterrorism goes global as anthrax spreads beyond US

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.

While giving extensive coverage to the incidents, The Times of India said in an editorial that a far greater threat to global security was posed by stockpiles of smallpox virus in the US and Russia.

"Should the smallpox virus turn into a biological weapon, it would be obvious where the leak has come from," the newspaper said. "Another Frankenstein's monster in the making?"

Elsewhere, Brazil's Health Ministry said three staff members of the Rio de Janeiro office of The New York Times are being tested for anthrax and are receiving precautionary treatment after their office got a suspicious letter posted in New York.

The letter, which was turned over to authorities unopened, was received by the office on Oct. 16. It was postmarked in New York on Oct. 5 without a return address, the newspaper said in a release.

The release, citing Brazilian authorities, said that preliminary tests had suggested spores consistent with anthrax had been found on the letter. But Brazilian health authorities were unable to confirm this.

In Europe on Friday, parliaments in Britain and Croatia were disrupted after receiving suspicious packages.

American Express Co said it would send letters of apology to some 40,000 Swedish card holders who received a promotional Christmas mailing containing an envelope with plastic snowflakes marked "spread these out." The mailing prompted angry phone calls.
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