The Centers for Disease Control scrambled Wednesday to find where the military accidentally shipped live anthrax virus.

As many as 18 labs around the country have been sent shipments of live anthrax when they should have received inactive or dead virus for research purposes.

And in Korea, officials say that 22 Air Force personnel may have been exposed to anthrax and are now undergoing treatment as a precaution.

Jason McDonald of the Centers for Disease Control said that most of the labs are private but a few are operated by government and public institutions.  The shipments were sent from the Army’s Dugway Proving Ground in Utah to California, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Washington.

One of the samples arrived at Osan Air Base in Korea leading to the possible infections of military personnel.

“There is absolutely no excuse. Not for the shipping institution. Not for receiving institutions that failed to confirm inactivation upon receipt,” Richard Ebright, a biosafety expert at Rutgers in New Jersey said. “Both should lose, irrevocably, authorization for work with active or inactivated select agents.”

The incorrect shipment was discovered by a laboratory in Maryland.