THE SVERDLOVSK ANTHRAX OUTBREAK
An outbreak of anthrax occurred during April, 1979, among people who lived or worked in a narrow zone downwind of a Soviet military microbiology facility in Sverdlovsk (now Ekaterinburg) Russia. In addition, livestock died of anthrax within a larger downwind zone. The facility was suspected by western intelligence of being a biological warfare research facility. Intelligence analysts attributed the outbreak to the accidental airborne release of anthrax spores. The Soviets maintained that the outbreak was
due to ingestion of contaminated meat purchased on the black market. Finally, in 1992, President Yeltsin of Russia admitted that the facility had been part of an offensive biological weapons program, and that the disease in animals and people resulted from an accidental release of anthrax spores.