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Volume 8, Number 10—October 2002
THEME ISSUE
Bioterrorism-related Anthrax
Bioterrorism-related Anthrax

Laboratory Response to Anthrax Bioterrorism, New York City, 2001

Michael B. Heller*, Michel L. Bunning†Comments to Author , Martin E.B. France‡, Debra M. Niemeyer§, Leonard Peruski¶, Tim Naimi†, Phillip M. Talboy†, Patrick H. Murray#, Harald W. Pietz†, John Kornblum*, William Oleszko*, Sara T. Beatrice*, and Joint Microbiological Rapid Response Team1New York City Anthrax Investigation Working Group2
Author affiliations: *New York City Department of Health, New York, New York, USA; †Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA; ‡Warfighting Concepts and Architecture Integration Division (J-8), The Joint Staff, Washington, D.C., USA; §Joint Program Office for Biological Defense, Falls Church, Virginia, USA; ¶Naval Medical Research Center, Silver Spring, Maryland, USA; #Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, Goldsboro, North Carolina, USA;

Main Article

Figure 4

Chart tracking the time needed to report the status of a sample brought in for classical Bacillus anthracis testing at the New York Bioterrorism Response Laboratory. Negative samples with no suspicious growth could be reported in 24 hours. However, any samples with growth required some degree of subplating or culturing in brain heart infusion broth (BHIB), were heat shocked, and then tested. Reporting of final results on samples could take 3–4 days. SBA, sheep blood agar; CW, cell wall; CAP, capsule; DFA, direct fluorescent-antibody assay; PCR, polymerase chain reaction; Ph, phage; +, positive.

Figure 4. Chart tracking the time needed to report the status of a sample brought in for classical Bacillus anthracis testing at the New York Bioterrorism Response Laboratory. Negative samples with no suspicious growth could be reported in 24 hours. However, any samples with growth required some degree of subplating or culturing in brain heart infusion broth (BHIB), were heat shocked, and then tested. Reporting of final results on samples could take 3–4 days. SBA, sheep blood agar; CW, cell wall; CAP, capsule; DFA, direct fluorescent-antibody assay; PCR, polymerase chain reaction; Ph, phage; +, positive.

Main Article

1 The Joint Microbiological Rapid Response Team consisted of the Biological Defense Research Directorate, Naval Medical Research Center, Bethesda, Maryland: F. Baluyot, M. Boyd, and T. Hudson; 4th Medical Support Squadron, Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina, USA: L. M. Bayquen and L. Galloway; and 7th Medical Support Squadron, Dyess Air Force Base, Texas: L. De Los Santos and C. Sekula.

2 The New York City Anthrax Investigation Working Group consisted of Division of Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Fort Collins: May Chu, David Dennis, Kathleen Julian, Anthony A. Marfin, and Lyle Petersen; CDC, Atlanta: Mary Brandt, Richard Kanwal, Kristy Kubota, Els Mathieu, Steve Ostroff, John Painter, Dejana Selenic, Allison Stock, Linda Weigel, and William Wong; New York City Department of Health: Neal Cohen, Laura Mascuch, Denis Nash, Sarah Perl, and Don Weiss; New York City Public Health Laboratories: Alice Agasan, Jay Amurao, Josephine Atamian, Debra Cook, Erica DeBernardo, Adeleh Ebrahimzadeh, Philomena Fleckenstein, Anne Marie Incalicchio, John Kornblum, Ed Lee, William Oleszko, Lynn Paynter, Alexander Ramon, Chiminyan Sathyakumar, Harold Smalls, George Williams, Marie T. Wong, and Ben Y. Zhao.

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