U.S. Anthrax Hits Kenya

NAIROBI - Thursday- Four members of a Kenyan family have become the first confirmed victims of an anthrax attack outside the US after they were exposed to the sometimes deadly bacteria through a letter posted in the US, health minister Sam Ongeri said Thursday. The letter was posted in Atlanta on September 8 — three days before the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon — and received in Kenya about a month later, Ongeri told a news conference. Anthrax, a disease most commonly encountered in livestock, is most fatal to humans when its spores are inhaled. Person-to-person infection is very unlikely. The FBI has placed a $1m reward to anyone with information about the perpetrators of the germ attack. The Kenya letter also bears a marking from Miami. No details of the family affected have been released. Kenya was victim of a devastating terrorist attack in 1998, when 213 people, including 12 Americans, were killed during the bombing of the US embassy in Nairobi. Ongeri said two other letters, including one received this week at a UN complex here, were being examined. “In all the cases, mails containing powder-like material was found and so far one has tested positive for anthrax by stain and smear,” Ongeri said. The results of the analysis of a letter suspected of containing anthrax bacteria received at the headquarters of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) were expected later on Thursday, Ongeri said. The letter sent to an unnamed employee at UNEP bore Pakistani postage stamps, the agency’s spokesman, Tore Brevik, said. Brevik said the letter raised suspicions because of the odd way in which stamps were applied and the address written on it. He gave no details. Ongeri said the Kenya government had set up a “national multi-sectoral taskforce” to tackle the anthrax alert. “The fear of possible deliberate use of poisonous chemicals or harmful pathogens has recently increased since last month’s terrorist attack in the US,” Ongeris said in a written statement. “Infectious agents (pathogens, toxic chemicals or gases) such as anthrax, botulism, smallpox, plague and viral haemorrhagic fevers are potential for use in biological warfare. This is an issue of national security concern, which needs urgent address,” he said. Ongeri was keen to stress, however, that anthrax is endemic to Kenya and should “pose no undue stress and worry.” A third letter suspected of having been contaminated with anthrax was posted from Nairobi to a businessman in the central town of Nyeri, Ongeri added. “Comprehensive epidemiological investigations will be carried out on every suspected case that may occur” and appropriate rapid response instituted, said Ongeri. The government had stockpiled emergency anti-anthrax drugs, he added. “Additional resources will be mobilised as the situation evolves in collaboration with national and international stakeholders,” he said. Although anthrax alerts have escalated all over the world over the last two days, no other cases have been confirmed outside the US. US congressional offices were shut down Wednesday after 31 US Senate employees tested positive for exposure to the bacteria, bringing to 44 the number of people in the US found to have been exposed. Ends