By Megan Gates
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has revealed that it accidentally sent live anthrax virus last Friday to fellow scientists in two lower-security clearance labs at the agency. Seventy-five CDC staff were exposed to live anthrax, but no instances of illness have been reported. “The initial safety lapse occurred in the CDC’s Bioterror Rapid Response and Advanced Technology laboratory, a high security lab that was trying out a new protocol for inactivating anthrax, using chemicals instead of radiation,” Reuters reports. According to CDC disclosures, scientists at the Bioterror Rapid Response lab had been preparing “an especially dangerous strain of the bacteria” that was to be sent to two-lower security CDC labs after it had been inactivated as part of an experiment on methods to identify anthrax sent to the United States quicker. The experimental inactivation failed, but the bacteria appeared to be dead and was mistakenly sent to the two labs for further experimentation before scientists realized the mistake.
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