Powder in Vietnam office is anthrax, scientist says
HANOI - A Vietnamese government scientist said Thursday a sample of
white power discovered in the office of a BP joint venture in Ho Chi Minh City had
tested positive for anthrax.
The powder was found at the offices of BP Petco on October 31 and sent for tests at
the city's Pasteur Institute.
Asked to confirm if the sample had tested positive for anthrax, the government
scientist, who did not want to be identified, replied: "Yes."
"We have to wait for the Health Ministry's instruction on how to handle this case."
The scientist said other suspicious samples had been sent for testing from other
places in Vietnam in recent weeks, "but we found no other case."
John Kilgour, the general manager of BP Petco, said BP had yet to see confirmation
of findings from the tests, although officials from the firm were meeting with officials
from the Pasteur Institute and the Health Ministry.
He said BP had not been provided with any definitive methodology from the Pasteur
Institute, and until it did so, it considered any findings "purely speculative."
He said another sample of the powder had also been sent to another laboratory in Ho
Chi Minh City, the Diag Center International.
A director of the center, Murielle Chiron, told Reuters the tests there would take
another two days.
The office of BP Petco, which markets and sells oil products, has been shut
temporarily pending the outcome of the tests.
Kilgour said there was no indication of any illness associated with the powder, which
had been found in a piece of folded paper under a meeting room table at the firm's
office near the center of Ho Chi Minh City.
In the United States, several letters laced with powdery anthrax bacterial spores have
been sent through the mail since the September 11 hijack attacks on New York and
Washington. Four people have died and authorities say 17 people have contracted
anthrax.
Reuters - November 8, 2001.
|