MOSCOW, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- A mailbag sent to the U.S. Consulate General in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg has tested positive for anthrax spores, reports said Tuesday.
The NTV network quoted experts from a Yekaterinburg sanitary laboratory as saying the spores were found in one of the six mailbags brought in by consulate workers for examination Oct. 26.
According to reports, the mail arrived in Yekaterinburg Oct. 25. The next day, consulate officials requested a laboratory examination after learning a dock worker for the U.S. State Department had contracted inhalation anthrax infection.
Initial tests revealed no traces of anthrax, however, a repeated examination confirmed Tuesday spores were present in one of the bags.
Epidemiologists in Moscow and Yekaterinburg assured consulate officials the possibility of contracting anthrax infection 13 days after the spores were shipped through the mail was insignificant.
Moscow's independent Ekho Moskvy radio station reported Tuesday one of the consulate's employees who was sorting mail had started taking antibiotics as a precaution.
The consulate said in a statement the man had not contracted anthrax. The consulate will not be closed and will continue operating on its usual schedule, the statement said.
