Anthrax inventory doesn't add up at lab

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Anthrax inventory doesn't add up at lab
>>Two vials with the bacteria may be missing. State health officials said
>>it's
>>most likely that clerical error is to blame.
>>
>>By Kristen A. Graham and Kaitlin Gurney
>>Inquirer Staff Writers
>>
>>Two vials of a deadly bacteria may be missing from a government lab in
>>Trenton - or officials might simply have miscounted, they said yesterday.
>>
>>Over the last three weeks, officials have been readying samples from the
>>Trenton Distribution Center - a postal facility in Hamilton where
>>anthrax-laced letters were discovered in 2001 - for a move to a new,
>>safer
>>bioterrorism facility.
>>
>>An inventory turned up 350 two-inch test tubes of liquid-encased anthrax
>>spores, when 352 should have been on site at the New Jersey Public Health
>>Environmental Laboratory where the anthrax has been stored since its
>>removal
>>from the postal facility.
>>
>>"We think that at the end of the day, it's going to be basically a
>>transcription error, or there wasn't an exact logging to what came in,"
>>said
>>Eddy Bresnitz, New Jersey deputy commissioner of health and senior
>>services.
>>"We don't think it's going to turn out to be missing inventory."
>>
>>Bresnitz and Fred Jacobs, the head of the state health department,
>>believe
>>that a discrepancy is likely because a more thorough count was performed
>>in
>>advance of the move to the new lab a short distance away.
>>
>>Bresnitz said he could not explain why a more exhaustive count was not
>>performed earlier.
>>
>>For now, the state has notified the Centers for Disease Control and
>>Prevention, the FBI, and the public of the potentially missing vials.
>>
>>"We don't think there's any threat to the public's health," Bresnitz
>>said.
>>"The way we have it stored, it can't be used in its current form as a
>>weapon
>>of mass destruction."
>>
>>In order for the samples to be weaponized, a person would have to have
>>highly specialized knowledge and equipment and take several steps, he
>>said.
>>
>>Officials said that 11 people had access to the samples, all of whom had
>>photo ID, access cards and a padlock key. The 11 - research scientists
>>and
>>microbiologists - also had FBI background checks and were interviewed
>>after
>>the discrepancy was discovered.
>>
>>The lab has a 24-hour security guard and is monitored by video cameras,
>>as
>>well.
>>
>>Another count is under way, and state officials expect to release a
>>report
>>analyzing what happened to the anthrax on Wednesday.
>>
>>Four letters containing anthrax were mailed through the Hamilton postal
>>facility in September and October of 2001. Four workers at the regional
>>processing center and one postal carrier were sickened, though all
>>recovered.
>>
>>Five people died nationwide.
>>
>>Letters were sent to NBC News, the New York Post, U.S. Sens. Tom Daschle
>>(D., S.D.) and Patrick Leahy (D., Vt.), contaminating the Hart Senate
>>Office
>>Building.
>>
>>No arrests have been made.
>>
>>Fumigating and restoring the Hamilton facility cost an estimated $100
>>million and took more than three years.
>>
>>http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/14401671.htm
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------- --
>>----------
>>Contact staff writer Kristen Graham at 856-779-3927 or
>>kgraham@phillynews.com.
>>