Anthrax sample confirmed in Kenya Letter sent from United States tests positive for bacteria
MSNBC NEWS SERVICES NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct. 18 - Kenyan Health minister Sam Ongeri said on Thursday that a letter sent to an unidentified Kenyan businessman in the capital, Nairobi, had tested positive for the anthrax bacteria. It represents the first case of its kind outside the United States since the Sept. 11 attacks.
ONGERI TOLD a news conference that the unidentified recipient and four family members "may have come into contact" with the spores and were being tested, but they are "not in danger." The powder was undergoing further tests at a government lab, he said.
White powder was found in two other letters - one to an official with the U.N. Environment Program in Nairobi and the other to a Kenyan businessman in the central town of Nyeri, Ongeri said. Those letters were also being tested at the state-run Kenya Medical Research Institute, he said.
The letter that tested positive for anthrax had been mailed Sept. 8 from Atlanta, Ongeri said, and was received in Kenya on Oct. 9. It was opened on Oct. 11.
The hand-addressed letter to the U.N. official was mailed from Pakistan, and the letter to the businessman appeared to have been mailed from Nairobi, he said.
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