[iwar] [fc:Anthrax.Spreads.to.State.Department,.CIA]

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Date: 2001-10-26 13:43:32


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Subject: [iwar] [fc:Anthrax.Spreads.to.State.Department,.CIA]
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Anthrax Spreads to State Department, CIA

By LAURA MECKLER
.c The Associated Press 

WASHINGTON (Oct. 26) - A State Department mail handler who works far from 
previous anthrax-infected sites was hospitalized with the inhaled form of the 
disease, and a co-worker was being watched for infection. The Postal Service 
began checking hundreds more offices nationwide for anthrax spores and 
prepared new protections for customers.

Also, the Central Intelligence Agency said Friday that it discovered a trace 
amount of anthrax in the mail-handling building at its McLean, Va., 
headquarters. A spokesman described the anthrax as ''medically 
insignificant'' but said the building was closed for additional tests.

''It's not enough to cause inhalation anthrax,'' said spokesman Bill Harlow. 
He said several agency employees who handle mail are taking antibiotics as a 
precaution.

Three weeks into the anthrax-by-mail scare, investigators continued their 
search for a sender but reported no progress. Health officials braced for 
another tainted letter to surface.

''We would be naive to think this is over yet,'' said Dr. Julie Gerberding of 
the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Just one anthrax-laced letter has been discovered in Washington - that 
addressed to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle earlier this month. But 
evidence of anthrax has now turned up in several places where that letter 
never traveled: mail rooms serving the House, the White House, at a distant 
Virginia location that processes State Department mail and at the CIA.

Two other anthrax letters have been opened in New York City, and evidence of 
anthrax has been found in Florida too.

The circle of infection widened with the diagnosis of the State Department 
mail supervisor, who worked more than 20 miles from Brentwood, Washington's 
central mail processing facility. Until Thursday, all those infected in the 
nation's capital had been tied to this central plant, which handles mail for 
federal agencies.

The 59-year-old man, hospitalized in guarded condition with inhaled anthrax, 
worked in Sterling, Va., where about 90 percent of the State Department's 
mail is processed, some of which comes from Brentwood.

Doctors asked him if his job ever took him to Brentwood. ''His answer was 
'never,''' reported Dr. Ivan Walks, Washington's chief health officer.

Authorities said it's possible that the Daschle letter contaminated other 
mail, which then infected this man, or, more ominously, another 
anthrax-filled letter may be somewhere in the postal system, yet to be 
discovered.

Health authorities were monitoring a male co-worker from the same facility, 
who was hospitalized with flu-like symptoms that are consistent with the 
disease, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

Their workplace was being tested for anthrax exposure Friday, as were 250 to 
300 workers, with about 80 of them immediately given preventative 
antibiotics. Another half dozen State Department locations also were to be 
tested, including two inside the Foggy Bottom headquarters.

Also, a test for anthrax in a mailroom in the Walter Reed Army Institute of 
Research in Silver Spring, Md., came back positive Thursday. The institute, 
which doesn't care for patients, is three miles from the hospital at the 
Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Trying to get ahead of the spiraling threat, the Postal Service began anthrax 
testing at hundreds of facilities along the East Coast and at every 
government mailroom, and did spot checks nationwide. Washington health 
officials asked virtually everyone involved with mail handling to report for 
antibiotics, and thousands of New York postal workers were prescribed the 
drugs too, even though further evidence of anthrax has not been found there.

And attempting to reassure anxious customers, the Postal Service was 
purchasing new irradiation equipment to kill any germs in the mail in 
selected areas. The equipment, similar to that used in food processing, uses 
electron beams and X-rays to kill bacteria.

The number of confirmed infections reached 13, all linked to the media or the 
mail, all in Florida, New York, New Jersey or metropolitan Washington.

Among those with inhalation anthrax, three had died, three were hospitalized 
and one had recovered. Another six people have been diagnosed with the highly 
treatable skin form of the disease.

Despite the disturbing anthrax news, officials urged calm. Many lawmakers 
were returning to their Capitol Hill offices, shuttered for the past week, 
while others were still shut out as anthrax decontamination continued.

''We are here to conduct the nation's business. We will not be frightened,'' 
Secretary of State Colin Powell said as he appeared before a Senate 
committee.

Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge said the anthrax in the Daschle letter 
was highly concentrated with very small, light spores that were easier to 
absorb into the respiratory system, making them more lethal.

''It is clear that the terrorists responsible for these attacks intended to 
use this anthrax as a weapon,'' Ridge said. He added:
''We still don't know who is responsible.''

The good news, he said, is that this strain of anthrax - known as the Ames 
strain - responds to all major antibiotics.

Those drugs were at work for three Washington area patients who work with the 
mail, all diagnosed with inhalation anthrax, and one postal worker in New 
Jersey, who is being watching for a disease last seen in the United States a 
quarter century ago.

Anxiety filled many postal workers stunned by daily developments in the 
unprecedented case of bioterrorism.

''We are all scared,'' said Ben Johnson, a postal truck driver in New York. 
''They are putting the value of moving the mail over the value of human 
life.''

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