Report: Anthrax in Suitcase Kills Egyptian Heading to Canada

April 29, 2003

Anthrax in Suitcase Kills Egyptian Heading to Canada

Monday, April 28, 2003

BRASILIA, Brazil — An Egyptian ship crewman has apparently died from exposure

to anthrax (search) contained in a suitcase he opened, Reuters news service

reported Monday.

An autopsy of the man, identified as Ibrahim Saved Soliman Ibrahim, revealed

that he died in his hotel room April 11 after experiencing vomiting, multiple

organ failure and internal bleeding, which were believed to have been caused by

the deadly bacteria, according to Reuters.

" He was the victim of anthrax, " said Brazilian federal police spokesman Fernando

Sergio Castro, adding that officials were 90 percent certain that anthrax was

the culprit.

Reuters reported that several health workers who discovered the body were

evaluated at a hospital after becoming sick, but are now out of danger.

Ibrahim, a crewman aboard an Egyptian merchant ship called the Wabi Alaras

(search), was transporting the suitcase to Canada, although authorities do not

believe he knew what was in the bag, according to Reuters.

" He opened it because he was curious, " Castro told Reuters. " We imagine that

this is about bioterrorism and Brazil was just used as a point of transfer. "

Ibrahim had traveled from Cairo to Brazil to join the ship, but he died before

it sailed to Canada, Reuters reported. Canada was alerted about the ship through

Interpol, and officials quarantined the vessel last week.

" There is absolutely no criminal or terrorist threat to Canada, " Royal Canadian

Mounted Police (search) Inspector Dan Tanner said from Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Brazilian authorities handed preliminary autopsy reports over to Canada, a

Health Canada spokeswoman in Halifax told Reuters, but final results wouldn't be

available until Tuesday at the earliest.

Castro told Reuters that an unidentified person gave Ibrahim the suitcase last

week, and the crewman was to deliver it to someone in Canada.

Five Americans died and several others were sickened in serial anthrax mailings

in the months following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The case remains

unsolved.

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