Live spores of anthrax may have reached 51 labs — spread across 17 states and three foreign countries — over the last decade, a Pentagon official told reporters on Wednesday.
Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work said there was little risk to the public, and the potentially live anthrax was transported in low concentrations, the Associated Press reported. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are investigating what went wrong, but Work said it appears there were at least two issues: Radiation failed to fully kill the live spores, and samples were not tested before shipping to determine they were inactive.
Accidental shipments of live spores of anthrax may have reached the Pentagon itself, as well as Canada.
The reports by CNN and USA Today came after the Department of Defense on Friday announced that live anthrax spores were likely shipped to even more laboratories and territories than previously believed, expanding the fallout of a contamination breach that reportedly dates back to at least 2008.
In a statement, Deputy Secretary of Defense Bob Work said he had ordered a complete review of the protocols involved with rendering anthrax inactive after officials determined that live spores may have been accidentally shipped to 24 labs in 11 U.S. states and two foreign nations.
The order came on the same day Pentagon officials said confirmed that live anthrax may have been mistakenly shipped to a laboratory in Australia in 2008, as well as a U.S. military base in South Korea.
Few details about the Australia shipment, reported by ABC News and the Associated Press, were immediately available, but the news — combined with growing list of recipients — appeared to show that lab procedures meant to render live spores inert may be more flawed than originally feared. The Centers for Disease Control is currently investigating how the live spores went undetected.
Up to 26 people have so far received precautionary treatment for anthrax exposure after the live spores were shipped from the U.S. Army's Dugway Proving Ground in Utah to a lab in Maryland according to the Associated Press. Anthrax samples from the same batch were then shipped out to military and educational laboratories for research.
Most of the samples that may have contained live spores were shipped — some of them via FedEx — over a one-year period starting in March 2014, CNN reported. The shipment to Australia was discovered after Army officials tested the source batch and found that it still contained live spores, ABC News reported.
In addition to the CDC review, Work ordered Department of Defense laboratories to test all "previously inactivated spore-forming anthrax" in the inventory. Labs that received the inactive anthrax were also ordered to stop working with the samples until further instruction.
The Army's chief of staff, Gen. Ray Odierno, told reporters Thursday that the live samples were likely the result of a technical error; the usual process of rendering spores inactive appears to not have completely killed the anthrax.
"The best I can tell, it was not human error," Odierno said.
Despite the possible exposure, officials said there was no known immediate risk to the general public.
"There is no known risk to the general public, and there are no suspected or confirmed cases of anthrax infection in potentially exposed lab workers," Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren said.
One of the potentially live samples went to Osan Air Base in South Korea, where personnel had expected to receive inert spores to use in a training exercise. The contained area was immediately cordoned off, officials said, and the sample was destroyed.
Personnel involved in the training had been following anthrax handling procedures, but 22 people received precautionary treatment measures, which can include antibiotics and vaccines. An anthrax vaccine is mandatory for services members serving in Korea and Central Command for 15 days or more, as well as those serving in some specialty units.
CDC spokesman Jason McDonald told the AP that four people at labs in Delaware, Texas, and Wisconsin were recommended to get antibiotics as a precaution.