Press Office
Food and Drug Administration
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

STATEMENT

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today issued the following statement:

The Food and Drug Administration has received the results of confirmatory anthrax testing at all its buildings, and those results are negative for anthrax.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) bases confirmation for anthrax on three different tests: polymerase chain reaction (PCR), gamma-phage assay, and the direct fluorescent antibody test. The FDA samples were negative for all three tests. As a result, CDC is certain that the samples initially considered “presumptive positive” are in fact not Bacillis anthracis, the anthrax bacterium.

FDA is now advising its mailroom employees who were given antibiotics on the basis of the preliminary test results to stop taking the antibiotics.

FDA News Page   |   FDA Home Page