Bugs on the loose

Anthrax bacteria have contaminated a leading US research centre twice in the last month. The US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases in Maryland is reeling after discovering traces of a dangerous anthrax strain outside a supposedly sealed, high-containment lab. Traces of another strain were found when the building was tested following the first leak. Anthrax experts fear that if such accidents can occur at the leading American anthrax facility, worse might happen in the 10 new high-containment labs planned under the US biodefence programme.