Letters to two national representative offices in Taiwan suspected of anthrax contamination have been confirmed as containing no anthrax spores, health officials said yesterday.
The Center for Disease Control confirmed that two letters sent to the South Korean Mission in Taipei and the India-Taipei Association on Wednesday did not contain anthrax spores.
"We suspect that both mischievous letters were sent by somebody who is mentally ill," said Chiang Ying-lung (
Chiang said the two envelopes contained notes requesting that the letters be forwarded to the sole attention of South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, arousing the suspicion of office staff, who informed the police.
The two letters were not opened before they were forwarded to the center.
"They have been confirmed as containing no powdery substances at all after our lab staff placed a piece from the letters into a buffer solution," Chiang said.
Chiang explained that since Wednesday last week, 41 letters suspected of possible anthrax contamination have been sent to the center, 40 of which were hoaxes.
Results from the latest case, reported to authorities yesterday are to be revealed today.
Chiang said that most of the tested items were the result of mischief by local residents. Some of the envelopes did not contain letters.
"There were even cases in which the mail contained food leftovers or pieces of clothing," Chiang said.
There were only two foreign items -- one from Iraq and one from New Jersey.
"The recipients panicked and didn't dare open the letters ... simply because of the letters' origin," Chiang said. "Similarly, many of the cases were reported to us just because the recipients were frightened of anthrax attacks and dared not open their own mail.
"They should be aware that anthrax bacteria do not exist in Taiwan and thus local mail is not at much risk," Chiang said.
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