DEFINITIVE PENTAGON TEST RESULTS TODAY
No employees exhibit anthrax symptoms
Routine sampling at the Pentagon Remote Distribution Facility (RDF) has produced possible positive results for anthrax. This facility processes mail from the Postal Service, as well as correspondence and packages from a variety of private couriers, including UPS, FedEx and DHL.
All USPS mail for this facility comes through the Washington, DC, V Street government mail processing unit. USPS letters and flats addressed to the Pentagon are irradiated before delivery.
In addition, a monitoring system detected a possible biological threat at a Falls Church, VA, military distribution center. All of the items in this distribution center would have originated in the Pentagon RDF.
None of the samples collected up to this point have been associated with any particular item in the RDF or the Falls Church military facility. Additional testing is under way at the U.S. Army Research Institute for Infectious diseases, Fort Detrick, MD. Definitive results are expected later today.
Environmental sampling also is underway at the USPS V Street facility. The results of these samples should be available Wednesday and will help determine if a mailpiece containing anthrax passed through this facility.
Out of an abundance of caution, and at the recommendation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, potentially affected workers in all three facilities have been offered short-term antibiotic medication.
However, no employees who may have been potentially exposed at any of the facilities have exhibited symptoms consistent with anthrax. The Postal Service, in coordination with public health officials in the District, Maryland and Virginia, is monitoring the health of V Street employees.
