As many as 22 personnel at a U.S. Air Force base in South Korea may have been exposed to anthrax after a military lab in Utah mistakenly sent live samples to the base and nine sites in the U.S.
The samples were supposed to have been inert for medical training but were discovered to potentially be live samples, according to a statement from Osan Air Force Base public affairs.
Emergency response personnel from the 51st Fighter Wing on the base responded and destroyed the sample, which was contained within a sealed off medical facility, the Air Force said.
“Hazardous material teams immediately cordoned off the facility, decontaminated it under Centers for Disease Control protocol, and destroyed the agent,” the Air Force said in the statement.
Reached for comment Wednesday evening Eastern time, a public affairs officer at Osan said the Air Force had no additional information beyond the statement.
During an exercise at the base, 22 personnel were participating in threat recognition training when it was determined that the samples might not be inert, and that the personnel “may have been exposed,” the Air Force said. “All personnel were provided appropriate medical precautionary measures to include examinations, antibiotics and in some instances, vaccinations. None of the personnel have shown any signs of possible exposure.”
The news that the samples reached and potentially exposed personnel at Osan follows the Defense Department’s admission Wednesday that one of its labs had accidentally sent live anthrax samples to facilities in nine states that were supposed to receive dead spores.
“There is no known risk to the general public,” Col. Steve Warren said in a statement. “There are no suspected or confirmed cases of anthrax infection in potentially exposed lab workers.”
The Pentagon is investigating the matter in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The transfer, which originated in a lab in Dugway, Utah, “was part of a DoD effort to develop a field-based test to identify biological threats in the environment.
“Out of an abundance of caution, DoD has stopped the shipment of this material from its labs pending completion of the investigation,” Warren said.
The government has confirmed that a lab in Maryland received the live spores, the Associated Press reported. The other labs are in California, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Texas, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin.
