South America on anthrax alert

The Brazilian authorities have stepped up precautions

A Brazilian laboratory says tests show a letter posted to the office of the New York Times newspaper in Rio de Janeiro did not contain anthrax as feared.

On Friday, the New York Times had said its correspondent in Rio de Janeiro received a letter from New York that tested positive for spores "consistent with anthrax".

The analysis by the Fiocruz laboratory in Rio came amid rising concern after the Argentine authorities confirmed that a letter there showed the presence of anthrax spores.

The Argentine authorities say no one was exposed to spores from the tainted letter

Before then, Kenya had been the only country besides the United States to confirm that the potentially deadly anthrax bacterium was in a letter.

All four employees in the Rio office were tested for anthrax and given antiobiotics as a precaution, the newspaper said.

But the president of the Fiocruz laboratory, Paulo Buss, said: "The culture carried out on the material that arrived at the New York Times office tested negative for the anthrax germ."

Argentine fears

In a nationally televised news conference on Friday, Argentina's Health Minister Hector Lombardo said that a travel brochure mailed from Miami tested positive for anthrax spores.

But he said the woman who received the suspicious letter did not open it and neither she nor anyone else had been exposed.

"We are working with the postal authorities and we are setting up a room to sterilise all letters with a dubious origin," the ministe said.

In the United States, so far eight people have been diagnosed with an anthrax infection.

Earlier in the week, the Kenyan Government said four people had been exposed to anthrax bacteria in a letter posted from the US.