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Anthrax Spores Found in Kenya Mail
The U.S. anthrax scare was officially exported overseas Thursday, with Kenyan officials saying bacterial spores were found in a package of cloth samples mailed to a Nairobi doctor from a relative in Atlanta.
While dozens of cases of suspicious powders continued to crop up Thursday from China to France to Germany, the package in Nairobi was the first piece of confirmed anthrax-tainted mail received outside the United States since the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
The doctor and four family members ``may have come into contact'' with the spores when the package was opened on Oct. 11, Health Minister Sam Ongeri said. Tests were done, but the family was ``not in danger,'' he said.
A task force was set up, including Kenyan health, defense and agriculture officials as well people from the World Health Organization and the Atlanta-based U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The package had been mailed via Express Mail Service on Sept. 8 from Atlanta and was received Oct. 9, Ongeri said. It was opened two days later.
It was sent to the Nairobi doctor by a relative living in Atlanta, said Dr. Julius Meme, a Health Ministry official. It contained samples of cloth and was damp. Upon opening the package and seeing some powder, the doctor called his relative to find out what it was, Meme said. The relative said he had no knowledge of any powder.
The relative then asked postal officials in the United States and was told the package was routed to Miami before arriving in Nairobi, Meme said.
The Nairobi case came as the number of anthrax cases ¡ª and hoaxes ¡ª in the United States continued to rise. Among them were people diagnosed with the skin form of the disease in New Jersey and New York City.
Kenyan police spokesman Peter Kimanthi said investigators there would be discussing the package with their U.S. counterparts.
Other anthrax mail scares reported in Kenya on Thursday were a letter apparently sent from Pakistan to an official at the U.N. Environment Program in Nairobi, and a letter from the Kenyan capital to a businessman in the central town of Nyeri. Both letters included white powder, were being examined, Ongeri said. Results were expected Friday.
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