The letters to Brokaw and Daschle are said to be very similar. Letters containing anthrax were also reported in Florida, where a man died of the inhaled form of the disease, and in Washington and Nevada. Supplies of Cipro, the antibiotic used to treat anthrax, are set to increase from 20million tablets per month to 200million by the New Year. America is also moving to meet the terrorist threat from smallpox. The US Centre for Disease Control has asked British firm Acambis to bring forward a delivery of 40million doses of vaccine by two years to next summer.
Smallpox is considered worse than anthrax.
It is highly contagious and kills about one in three victims. Germ warfare hoaxers continued to plague Britain yesterday. Police were called to Prestwick Airport in Ayrshire over a letter but powder in the envelope was harmless. A similar hoax was reported at a sorting office in Altens, Aberdeen. Police confirmed a package sent to Prince William's university at St Andrews was a fake, as was another mailed to the force's headquarters.