UK stockpiles anthrax antibiotics

Some drugs cannot be bought from UK pharmacies

The government is stockpiling antibiotics to treat anthrax as it prepares to reveal its contingency plans for tackling bioterrorism.

Officials have moved to reassure the public that Britain is prepared to deal with any future biological or chemical terrorist attack.

Details to be released later in the week will take the form of guidance for the NHS, local authorities and the public from the Department of Health (DoH) and the Home Office.

Professor Donaldson say the UK is "well prepared"

But government officials are keen to avoid panic as a baby boy and a 73-year-old man become the latest to be infected with anthrax in the US.

On Tuesday morning a sorting office in Liverpool was evacuated after white powder fell out of a package. The substance is being tested.

Earlier, Dave Joyce, chairman of the health safety committee of the Communication Workers' Union, said officials were also trying to avoid panic within the postal service.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "Members are being briefed and given adequate information and instruction as to the risk posed by anthrax, and what they should do if a suspect package is encountered... or possibly broken open by accident."

The Public Health Laboratory Service has already updated its advice on how to deal with a deliberate attempt to spread anthrax.

Guidance includes the importance of sealing off what the PHLS calls "the exposed zone" if anthrax spores are found and decontaminating everyone present.

Any infected people would need to take antibiotics for up to eight weeks.

Extra supplies

Chief medical officer Professor Liam Donaldson said on Monday that the government has obtained extra supplies of antibiotics to counter any attack.

But he insisted there was no intelligence of any specific threat.

And he said any outbreak of anthrax - such as those which have occurred in the US - would affect only small numbers of people.

There have also been scares in Australia - one at the British consulate

"We don't have any evidence that there is any threat or risk but it is our responsibility to plan and plan well, and that is what we have been doing over the last two weeks," he told the BBC.

"I think we're very well prepared...we have one of the best public health systems in the world."

Professor Donaldson said the government has issued reminders to doctors on how to diagnose and treat anthrax.

And the DoH has been reviewing its contingency plans for dealing with all public health emergencies.

Three tested

Some UK GPs have reported patients coming in worried that they have the disease.

But a spokeswoman for the British Medical Association said all they would do was reassure the patients that they were very unlikely to have it.

Official guidelines mean doctors are unlikely to test anyone for anthrax unless there is a specific incident in which they may have been exposed to the bacteria.

"If somebody did develop symptoms it would be a result of some sort of exposure... tied to particular incidents, the opening of suspect parcels and so on," Professor Donaldson said.

Results awaited

"So people would be coming to seek help on the basis of a specific incident, not on the basis of feeling generally unwell. Anthrax is not something that spreads from person to person."

Three people have been tested in Britain, after working in the US buildings where spores were detected. They are still awaiting results.

Pharmacies in the US report being swamped with demands for the antibiotic Cipro, which can be used to treat cutaneous (skin) anthrax.

Only those involved in a specific incident would be tested

But members of the public trying to take their own preventative measures in the UK are likely to be frustrated.

A spokeswoman for Bayer, which makes the drug, told BBC News Online it is available only on prescription in the UK - and not licensed for anthrax anyway.

A range of alternative antibiotics are used - but again these are available only on prescription.

Anyone asking their doctor for a vaccine is also going to be disappointed.

Even private practitioners cannot offer it to patients as it is not recommended for the general public, not produced commercially and cannot be purchased.