Anthrax Redux

Via ProMED-mail: The New York Times reports on the life and spores of the late Dr. Bruce Edwards Ivins.

Focused for years on the wrong man, the bureau missed ample clues that Dr. Ivins deserved a closer look. Only after a change of leadership nearly five years after the attacks did the bureau more fully look into Dr. Ivins’s activities. That delay, and his death, may have put a more definitive outcome out of reach.
Brad Garrett, a respected F.B.I. veteran who helped early in the case before his retirement, said logic and evidence point to Dr. Ivins as the most likely perpetrator.
“Does that absolutely prove he did it? No,” Mr. Garrett said. With no confession and no trial, he said, “you’re going to be left not getting over the top of the mountain.”

And doubts will persist:

In November, four of Dr. Ivins’s closest co-workers wrote a glowing obituary of their “valued collaborator” for Microbe, the leading microbiology journal. It did not mention the anthrax accusations and was a singular protest by the four scientists against the F.B.I.’s conclusion.
“His colleagues and friends will remember him not only for his dedication to his work,” the obituary said, “but also for his humor, curiosity and great generosity.”

The Perils of Being a Disease Maven

Via ProMED-mail: The New York Times reports on the perils of being a bioterrorism expert--or even an amateur--when the FBI is on the prowl.

Another casualty was Kenneth M. Berry, an emergency room physician with a strong interest in bioterrorism threats. In August 2004, agents raided his colonial-style home and his former apartment in Wellsville, a village in western New York, as well as his parents’ beach house on the Jersey Shore.
In scenes replayed for days on local television stations, the authorities cordoned off streets as agents in protective suits emerged from the dwellings with computers and bags of papers, mail and books.
“He was devastated,” Dr. Berry’s lawyer at the time, Clifford E. Lazzaro, said in an interview. “They destroyed his marriage and destroyed him professionally for a time.”

Anthrax Scares

The CDC has the latest on recent anthrax incidents.

On March 10th, routine samples from an air sampling device at the Pentagon Remote Delivery Facility were collected and preliminary tests, reported to the Department of Defense (DoD) on March 14, indicated the possibility of the presence of Bacillus anthracis. Also, on March 14th, an alarm at a separate Defense office in the Skyline complex indicated the possibility of the presence of a biohazard. As a result, employees in close proximity to the mail handling at these two facilities and the United States Postal Service (USPS) V-Street feeder facility were placed on a 3-day course of prophylactic antibiotics.

Anthrax in the News

USA Today reports on anthrax contamination within the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID). The Fort Detrick biolab did so much testing during the anthrax scare that spores escaped the Level 3 labs to contaminate someone's desk. Thanks to Adam from Fludemic for the link.