U.S. CDC tests suggest anthrax exposures ‘highly unlikely’

By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO (Reuters) – The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is advising some employees to stop taking antibiotics to ward off a possible anthrax infection after preliminary tests suggest it is “highly unlikely” they were inadvertently exposed to live anthrax bacteria earlier this month, a spokesman said on Monday. The CDC conducted the tests after an incident in the agency’s high-security bioterror response laboratory suggested live anthrax may have been transferred from that lab to employees in a lower-security facility who were not wearing proper protective gear, raising concerns that they may have been exposed to the deadly pathogen. CDC spokesman Tom Skinner said preliminary results of environmental testing in the lower-security labs and some lab tests by the CDC suggest no viable bacteria left the lab.