UN on alert as anthrax danger investigated

The United Nations system in Kenya was on Thursday awaiting laboratory results on a suspect letter after the government had confirmed a separate case of anthrax exposure from contaminated post, the first such case outside the United States in the recent scare associated with the disease.

Health Minister Sam Ongeri said that anthrax had been discovered in a letter sent to a private Kenyan citizen from Atlanta in the US, the BBC reported.

Four members of the man's family were exposed to anthrax by the letter, which was sent on 8 September - three days before the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, USA - and routed through Miami, arriving in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on 9 October, Ongeri added.

The UN Director-General in Kenya, Klaus Toepfer, said on Thursday that a suspect letter, postmarked in Pakistan and sent to an unnamed employee at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in Nairobi, had been passed to the Medical Research Institute for testing, and results were expected late on Thursday.

A third letter suspected of anthrax contamination was posted from Nairobi to a businessman in the town of Nyeri, 100 km north of Nairobi, and had also been sent for testing, according to Ongeri.

He said that four people exposed to the anthrax-contaminated letter in Nairobi were "not in danger" of contracting the disease, which can cause severe - and sometimes fatal - infection of the skin, intestinal system and lungs. Anthrax is treatable if caught soon after exposure.

Five cases of infection have been confirmed in the US and the fear is of some linkage between these and 11 September terrorist attacks on the country, though there is no evidence to support such theories so far.

The anthrax poisoning confirmed in Nairobi is the first such incident outside the US, though alerts and hoaxes have been reported around the world.

The suspect letter received at the UNEP office in Nairobi had raised suspicions because of the odd way in which stamps were applied and the address written, Toepfer said at a press conference on Thursday.

UN staff had implemented new health and security measures to deal with suspected anthrax cases correctly, and extra precautions were being taken by the organisation, he said.

"We have taken all the recommended prophylactic measures," Toepfer told journalists. Some 10 UN staff members were receiving precautionary antibiotics, including senior UNEP official, Tore Brevik, he added.

The government of Kenya has set up a national task force to tackle the anthrax alert, but the disease was endemic to Kenya and "should pose no undue stress and worry," AFP on Thursday quoted Health Minister Sam Ongeri as saying.

People should not panic about the discovery because "the government has the capacity and capability to deal with the situation," he added.

Concern about anthrax has been increasing worldwide as five cases - one fatal - have been confirmed in the US. American congressional offices were shut down on Wednesday after 31 US Senate employees tested positive for exposure to the bacteria, bringing to 44 the number of people to have been so exposed.

Recent terrorist threats and confirmed cases of exposure to anthrax have caused an increase in anxiety over the possibility of chemical and biological attacks, the US State Department stated on Thursday.

"While the risk of such attacks is limited, it cannot be excluded," it added.