Live anthrax shipment confirmed at Delaware lab

The sample of anthrax that the U.S. Department of Defense shipped to a commercial laboratory in Delaware has been confirmed as live, according to state health officials.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reportedly informed the Delaware Division of Public Health (DPH) on Friday that the shipment sent to the Delaware lab contained a "low concentration" of live anthrax.

The division did not announce that finding until Monday evening.

"There remains no danger to the public," division spokeswoman Emily Knearl said in an email. "DPH is working closely with the CDC on a decontamination strategy that specifically addresses the low level of live bacteria and expects the lab to be decontaminated this week."

Knearl did not respond to messages asking why a public announcement was not made until this week.

State and federal health officials also have refused to identify the Delaware lab that received the live anthrax shipment.

News of the shipment first became public Wednesday when the CDC announced it was investigating what the Pentagon called an inadvertent shipment of anthrax to at least one – and perhaps as many as nine – laboratories across the country.

The Pentagon now says live anthrax samples may have been sent to a total of 24 labs in 11 states, as well as a military base in South Korea and a laboratory in Australia.

The samples came from the Army's West Desert Test Center Dugway Proving Ground in Dugway, Utah. Scientists at the lab there run experiments on anthrax to help improve its detection and treatment for those exposed to anthrax. Scientists at Dugway reportedly intended to ship only dead, inactive samples to colleagues at other labs.

The CDC has been testing the shipments sent to those labs to determine whether the samples were properly inactivated.

The error came to light after a lab in Maryland notified the Pentagon that the specimen it received was able to grow, raising concerns that others were also not thoroughly killed.

The Delaware lab that received an anthrax sample from Dugway was shut down after state officials learned of the shipment on May 23. The facility and will remained closed until decontamination is completed, state health officials said last week.

That decontamination was reportedly supposed to begin over the weekend, but appears to have been postponed once state officials learned the lab received a live sample of the potentially deadly bacteria.

Breathing live anthrax spores can cause flu-like symptoms, including a high fever, and is often deadly even with treatment.

Several staff members at the Delaware lab, including the only person who directly worked with the anthrax sample, have been on antibiotics since the facility was closed, Knearl said Monday.

"According to the CDC, the low level of live bacteria poses minimal risk to most people," she said in an email. "The federal agency recommends antibiotics for lab staff who handled the specimens or were in the immediate vicinity."

Knearl reported that the "minor" amount of live anthrax found in the sample shipped to Delaware means the division can reduce the number of staff members at the lab who are currently taking antibiotics.

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter told reporters travelling with him in Vietnam on Sunday that the Pentagon will determine who was responsible for the shipments of live anthrax and hold them accountable. An investigation, overseen by Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work, was launched on Thursday.

USA Today reporter Tom Vanden Brook contributed to this article.

Contact Scott Goss at (302) 324-2281, sgoss@delawareonline.com or on Twitter @ScottGossDel.