Posted 8:10 p.m. Oct. 17
By Alex Kingsbury
U-WIRE Washington Bureau
MANCHESTER, England – British fears of a possible terrorist attack with the lethal anthrax bacteria increased Monday when Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle’s office received a letter containing the deadly agent.
As American officials sealed off portions of the Hart Senate office building on Capitol Hill, Anthrax scares hit around the globe.
In Britain, Rochester Cathedral in Kent was sealed by police when a suspicious package and white powder were reported. Nearby, Canterbury Cathedral fell victim to a similar scare one day earlier.
Three British citizens who worked in U.S. buildings where anthrax was discovered are still awaiting test results. In Germany, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s office was also evacuated as officials investigated a suspicious package.
The developments added to fears that terrorists would retaliate to the allied bombing campaign in Afghanistan.
Prof. Liam Donaldson, Britain’s chief medical officer, said the country was prepared with supplies and training for an act of bioterrorism.
“We have to put proper contingency plans in place and make sure they are effective,” Donaldson told the British Broadcasting Corporation. “Anthrax is not something that spreads from person to person. Our responsibility is to make sure effective treatments are moved quickly to the place they are needed,” he said, adding that there was no known threat or risk of such an attack in the United Kingdom.
Donaldson’s comments came as the government was criticized for keeping its contingency plans for such an attack under tight security. Government officials argued that the public is safer if the details of British preparation are kept secret.
While the dangers of an anthrax attack are very serious, officials in Britain have been trying to downplay the real world danger that the disease poses.
Anthrax comes in several forms, cutaneous (skin), intestinal, and the most deadly — pulmonary or air-born.
The largest known outbreak of pulmonary anthrax occurred in Russia in 1979 following an accident at a military bio-weapons facility. Though 70 people are known to have died in the incident, thousands more were thought to have survived the exposure to the bacteria.
Scientists and government officials Monday stressed that the disease is not transmittable between humans and that the type of anthrax mailed to NBC News and Sen. Daschle’s office was not the pulmonary version of the disease.
Britain has been on a high state of alert since the attacks in New York and Washington on Sept. 11. London police assigned extra patrols to the streets and there is a noticeably larger security presence around tourist monuments and government palaces.
While there has been no official warning from the British government to American tourists, some American students studying in the United Kingdom have received information from their institutions urging them to keep a low profile, avoid public demonstrations and not open suspicious packages from those they do not know.
