Abstract
The biological attacks with powders containing Bacillus anthracis sent through the mail during September and October 2001 led to unprecedented public health and law enforcement investigations, which involved thousands of investigators from federal, state, and local agencies. Following recognition of the first cases of anthrax in Florida in early October 2001, investigators from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) were mobilized to assist investigators from state and local public health and law enforcement agencies. Although public health and criminal investigations have been conducted in concert in the past, the response to the anthrax attacks required close collaboration because of the immediate and ongoing threat to public safety. We describe the collaborations between CDC and FBI during the investigation of the 2001 anthrax attacks and highlight the challenges and successes of public health and law enforcement collaborations in general.
Highlights
Public health and law enforcement agencies become involved in the investigation of a possible bioterrorism event under different circumstances
The covert event may not be initially recognized as an attack, and public health generally first recognizes the problem and leads the initial inquiry (Figure 2)
In 1996, an outbreak of gastroenteritis among staff in the laboratory of a large medical center was caused by Shigella dysenteriae type 2, a pathogen that is unusual in the United States [2]
Summary
Public health and law enforcement agencies become involved in the investigation of a possible bioterrorism event under different circumstances. Such events fall into one of two categories: overt and covert. The anthrax attacks in September and October 2001 provide examples of both overt and covert events and highlight the different ways that public health and law enforcement agencies become involved in investigating bioterrorist attacks. Law enforcement officials were notified and involved in the initial investigation because of the rarity of inhalational anthrax in the United States [5,6], because B. anthracis has known potential as a biological weapon [7,8], and because of increased vigilance for a possible bioterrorist attack after the events of September 11. While the public health investigator’s aim is to collect data that will withstand the scrutiny of subject matter experts and the global scientific community, with the ultimate goal of developing effective control measures, the law enforcement investigator’s
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