ATLANTA, Nov 15: The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Thursday that it had received requests for lab tests and bioterrorism information from 66 countries concerned about anthrax outbreaks during the past month.

The CDC, the federal agency leading the medical investigation into an outbreak of the rare but deadly anthrax bacteria in the United States, added that “no cases of bioterrorism-related anthrax” had been confirmed abroad.

Countries including Pakistan, Kenya and Germany in recent weeks had reported the discovery of letters and packages suspected to be contaminated with anthrax, fuelling fears that the outbreak had spread beyond the United States.

Seventeen people in the United States have been infected with anthrax since early October, four of whom have died.

The anthrax spores came from letters mailed following the Sept. 11 hijacking attacks that killed more than 4,500 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

There has not been a new case since Oct. 31 when a New York hospital worker died from the more severe inhaled form of the disease.—Reuters