It would cost about US$1.56 billion to build and run such a plant for 20 years, according to the report, which lawmakers received the week before the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
"Biological agents, even if adversaries intend them solely for use against military targets, could have the potential for causing severe primary or collateral civilian damage," Surgeon General David Satcher wrote in a letter to Rumsfeld supporting the construction of such a facility.
After the initial infection and a course of antibiotics, treatment with a vaccine can prevent anthrax spores that remain in the body from causing new infections. Bayer AG's Cipro is the only antibiotic approved for treatment of the spore form of anthrax.
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