The September 11th attack
State testing lab getting 'good practice'
By Yasmin Anwar
Advertiser Staff Writer
They might not be seeing any anthrax, but in recent days the state Health Department laboratory in Pearl City has opened and tested all manner of "suspicious" mail, from credit card bills and magazines to gold earrings and shoes.
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser
Bioterrorism microbiologists have received more than 90 suspect letters and packages in the weeks since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Microbiologist Susan Naka demonstrates how to test for biohazards such as anthrax on mail at the state Health Department laboratory in Pearl City with the help of lab assistant Joy Datanagan.
Some mail raises alarms because of its origin. Other correspondence is flagged because of the addressee. It all gets checked out. The lab examined a resume from a Filipina nurse in Saudi Arabia, and a letter addressed to a "Ms. Cherry Blossom" that contained white paper and powder and a reference to "Bin Laden."
Rebecca Sciulli, the lab's head of bioterrorism preparedness, said the substance has not been identified, but she doubts it is cause for worry.
"I don't think we have seen any anthrax yet," she said.
Still, Sciulli said, the lab is getting good practice in case anthrax or other weapons of bioterrorism ever reach Hawai'i.
Donning sterile masks, latex gloves and disposable coveralls, microbiologists probe each item in a biosafety cabinet, extracting any powdery substance and running culture analysis and other tests for the deadly bacteria that has so many people on edge.
Among the rash of post-Sept. 11 requests, the Pearl City lab tested the nasal swab of a Florida boy visiting Hawai'i who had been in the same building as Bob Stevens, the Sun photo editor who died after inhaling anthrax.
The 12-year-old, reportedly a friend of the National Enquirer publisher, was participating in a triathlon in Hawai'i when authorities tracked him down and tested him for exposure. The results came back negative, Sciulli said.
Anthrax is caused by a bacterium that lives in the soil and is carried on the hides and hair of some cattle, goats and sheep.
The microbes can cause human disease when they come in contact with the skin, are consumed or inhaled. The inhaled form is especially deadly, and a few nations are known to have made warheads loaded with the deadly spores.
The disease cannot be spread from person to person.
If a suspicious substance in Hawai'i cannot be identified immediately, the fire department's hazardous materials teams turns it over to the state's Hazard Evaluation and Emergency Response. Some of those cases end up at the Pearl City lab, while others go to the University of Hawai'i-Manoa. In urgent situations, samples are sent to the U.S. Navy lab at Pearl Harbor, which can have results within three to four hours.
It takes the state laboratory at least 36 hours to detect anthrax antibodies, spores and cells. Sciulli hopes the process will speed up in December when the laboratory receives rapid testing materials from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
