Anthrax Test Positive in Nevada on Envelope Returned from Malaysia

CARSON CITY, Nev. (KFWB/AP) 10.13.01, 1:10p --

A third anthrax test on a letter sent from Malaysia to a Microsoft office has come back positive, Gov. Kenny Guinn said Saturday.

State officials will be sending the letter to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for further testing, Guinn said. So far, no one has tested positive for the disease or become ill. "This is a very, very low risk to public health," Guinn said.

Microsoft officials contacted health officials Wednesday about the letter, which had been sent to the Microsoft Licensing Inc. office.

Public health investigators were contacting Microsoft employees to determine who might have handled the letter, which contained pornographic material.

An initial test on the letter's contents produced results "consistent with it being anthrax," health officials said.

The subsequent test was more specific to anthrax, but came back negative.

-- pho (owennos@bigfoot.com), October 13, 2001