To be fair, they thought the spores were inert

May 28, 2015 07:02 GMT  ·  By

This past Wednesday, May 27, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed that it was investigating an accidental shipment of live anthrax spores from a laboratory in Utah to several research facilities both in the country and overseas. 

The anthrax samples, originating from the Dugway Proving Ground US Army facility southwest of Salt Lake City, were sent to either government or commercial laboratories in Maryland, Texas, Delaware, Wisconsin, Tennessee, New Jersey, California, Virginia and New York.

That's a total of nine states that received anthrax spores from the Dugway Proving Ground facility, if you don't feel like counting. As for the anthrax samples that were sent overseas, it is understood that they reached research laboratories in South Korea.

To be perfectly honest, just one batch of spores that was sent to a laboratory in Maryland has until now been confirmed to contain live specimens. Still, officials and experts with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are not willing to take any chances.

Thus, they are now working to track down and seize all the samples involved in this mishap. They will then ship the anthrax spores to secured laboratories for further research, quite likely also to have them destroyed in carefully controlled conditions.

Regular folks have nothing to worry about, officials reassure

True, the US Military made a boo-boo and accidentally sent live anthrax samples all across the country and even all the way to South Korea. Even more awkwardly, word has it they had them delivered to these destinations via FedEx.

Even so, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention insists that no reports of illness have until now been documented and that the general public has nothing to worry about.

“At this time we do not suspect any risk to the general public,” a spokesperson for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tells NBC News in a statement concerning this incident.

“Out of an abundance of caution, Department of Defense has stopped the shipment of this material from its labs pending completion of the investigation,” adds a spokesperson for the US Department of Defense.

Anthrax is a bacterium that can enter the body through the skin, the digestive system or the lungs. Well, actually, the bacterium's official name is Bacillus anthracis. We've just grown accustomed to calling it anthrax, which is the name of the disease it causes.

Although it usually infects wild or domesticated herbivorous mammals, which can become exposed to anthrax spores when grazing, the bacterium can also cause disease in humans. Some forms of anthrax respond to antibiotic treatment, but the disease sometimes proves fatal.