Posted on 10/09/2001 2:37:20 AM PDT by newzjunkey
Anthrax Bacteria Found in Second Florida Man; FBI Takes Over Case, Scores Seek Testing
By Amanda Riddle Associated Press Writer
Published: Oct 9, 2001
BOCA RATON, Fla. (AP) - The FBI on Monday took over the investigation into the anthrax death of a Florida man after the germ was found in the nose of a co-worker and on a computer keyboard in their office. Hundreds of people who worked near the men lined up to get medical tests. Attorney General John Ashcroft said the case could become "a clear criminal investigation."
"We don't have enough information to know whether this could be related to terrorism or not," he said during a news conference in Washington.
The FBI sealed off the Boca Raton building housing several supermarket tabloids, including The Sun, where both men worked. Agents donned protective gear before going inside.
How the bacterial spores got into the newspaper's office remained under investigation. Federal investigators handling the cases have eliminated the obvious environmental sources of anthrax, said Barbara Reynolds, a spokeswoman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., said CDC officials told him that "human intervention" was the likely cause of contamination.
Health officials insisted there was no public health threat, but there was unease among some of the 500 people waiting for antibiotics and anthrax tests at the Palm Beach County health agency Monday.
"I feel nervous. I'm worried for everybody," said David Hayes, an editor for the Star tabloid who works in the building. Test results are expected to take days or weeks in some cases.
Anthrax cannot be spread from person to person, but all 300 people who work in the building - and anyone who spent more than an hour inside since Aug. 1 - were advised to visit health officials.
Antibiotics can treat anthrax, though the form that killed Sun photography editor Bob Stevens is particularly lethal. Stevens, 63, died Friday of inhalation anthrax, the first such fatality in the United States since 1976.
The anthrax exposure case reported Monday involved a mailroom employee identified by co-workers as 73-year-old Ernesto Blanco. Health officials said he had anthrax bacteria in his nasal passages, but he has not been diagnosed with the disease.
Blanco was tested for anthrax because he happened to be in a hospital for what co-workers said was an unrelated heart problem.
He was in stable condition at a Miami-area hospital, authorities said. Relatively large anthrax spores that lodge in the upper respiratory tract are less dangerous than smaller spores that get into the lungs.
Reynolds said authorities may never know whether he actually had anthrax because antibiotics may have killed it before it was detected.
Anthrax can be contracted from farm animals or soil, but the bacterium is not normally found among the wildlife or livestock in Florida. Stevens was described as an avid outdoorsman and gardener.
"When you have two cases in the same building and a positive sample from the environment in that building and no wool sorters or animal hides in that building, it lowers the likelihood of it coming from the environment," Reynolds said, reading a statement from CDC Director Jeffrey Koplan.
State epidemiologist Dr. Steven Wiersma said tests will help determine whether the anthrax found in the second victim was natural or genetically engineered. Health officials have said the bacteria in Stevens' blood responded to antibiotics, indicating that it was natural.
He and other health officials said there was no reason for alarm.
"The risk is low," said Dr. John Agwunobi, Florida secretary of health. He said the sample of anthrax that was found in the building was taken from Stevens' computer.
Elsewhere, a state official in Virginia confirmed that health officials there were monitoring a possible case of anthrax at a northern Virginia hospital.
Prince William Hospital in Manassas, Va., contacted the state health department with a possible anthrax diagnosis, "one of several possible diagnoses" for the victim, whose name was not released, said M. Boyd Marcus, Gov. Jim Gilmore's chief of staff. He said a germ culture from the victim was transported to a state laboratory in Richmond on Monday evening and would take at least 24 hours to analyze.
The state government was told that the Virginia victim had either been an employee of or a contractor for The Sun, Marcus said. He had no details, and he said it wasn't known whether the victim had been in Florida of late or had had direct contact with Blanco or Stevens.
The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks have raised fears of bioterrorism across the country, and focused particular concern on the origin of the anthrax here.
Stevens lived about a mile from an air strip where flight school owner Marian Smith said suspected hijacker Mohamed Atta rented planes. Several suspected hijackers also visited a crop-dusting business in Belle Glade, 40 miles from Stevens' home in Lantana.
David Pecker, chief executive of the tabloids' publisher, American Media, said he did not believe the company was being targeted by terrorists because of how the papers have covered the attacks and suspected terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden.
Newsweek magazine reported on its Web site Monday that the office received a "weird love letter to Jennifer Lopez" a week before the Sept. 11 attacks. Inside was what was described as a "soapy, powdery substance" and a Star of David charm. The letter was handled by both Stevens and Blanco, according to unidentified workers cited by Newsweek.
Bennet Bolton, a senior reporter for The National Enquirer, told The Associated Press on Monday about a "cryptic" e-mail sent to the staff in late August or early September by an intern who worked in the newsroom this summer.
"It intrigued us that he left such a cryptic farewell," Bolton said. "It was rather neutral and then he said, 'I left you a surprise for you to remember me by. Ha ha, just kidding.'"
He said federal investigators were told about the e-mail. The FBI did not return several phone calls seeking comment about it.
Only 18 cases of inhalation anthrax were reported in the United States during the 20th century, the most recent in 1976 in California. Without treatment, 90 percent of victims die within days. More common is a less serious form of anthrax contracted through the skin.
Federal officials are sending Florida 100 cases of antibiotics to back up the local supply. The antibiotics came from a federal stockpile that holds enough to treat 2 million cases of anthrax.
An injectable anthrax vaccine has been around since the 1970s, but it limited to military use. It is reportedly not in production.
--- On the Net:
CDC: http://www.bt.cdc.gov/Agent/Anthrax/Anthrax.asp
AP-ES-10-09-01 0230EDT
I think the bold part contains your answer.
"Sources said" isn't terribly concrete and, frankly, AP is far and wider exposed and depended upon by news-gathers than Newsweek. It's easier to hold back on something vaguely sourced and wait than issue forth a retraction and hope no damage has been done.
"It's takes weeks to test" ..... "It may take days to test"
Hey, nothing to worry about....
Is this only due to lag time between when the hospital first got the patient and the tests were conducted and AP got around to reporting it?
Health officials insisted there was no public health threat, but there was unease among some of the 500 people waiting for antibiotics and anthrax tests at the Palm Beach County health agency Monday.
``I feel nervous. I'm worried for everybody,'' said David Hayes, an editor for the Star tabloid who works in the building. Test results are expected to take days or weeks in some cases.
So what gives. I think they are acting to avoid massive panic.
The hilarious quote of the day.
You forgot the word "preliminary". Full results won't be in until later.
Maybe so. If I were in the middle of a suspected outbreak of anthrax I would want to minimize public panic, also. I would want to be absolutely certain of what was going on before I shutdown all movement of people in the suspected area. Basically, that is what the first response would be. You won't be as likey to be exposed to anthrax spores if you hunker down and don't move around in an area known to have the spores present.
Or a summer intern, perhaps? That would be appropriate.
An anthrax scare gripped the nation yesterday as a third employee of a supermarket tabloid was said to be exposed - and the FBI probed frightening reports of an odd e-mail from a departing intern about "a little present" that he left behind.
The FBI announced it had taken over the investigation as a possible criminal - or terrorist - attack.
Three employees of American Media, which publishes The National Enquirer and other supermarket tabloids out of Boca Raton, Fla., told The Post that the FBI wants to question a summer intern who left the company recently after sending out an e-mail to employees saying thank you and "I left you all a little present."
A top executive at the company said the intern was believed to be from Sudan and was on an exchange program at a local college.
At the time, no one thought anything of the intern's e-mail, but in the wake of the anthrax scare, employees are now concerned, they said.
The FBI is also investigating a strangely worded letter received by the company that contained a "soapy, powdery substance" in the shape of a Star of David, Newsweek has reported. The letter was handled by two of the people who contracted anthrax, the magazine said.
All employees and people who were in the building in the last 60 days were told to take antibiotics for the next two months to fight off infection.
They were also asked for all their computer passwords so investigators could probe their hard drives.
One employee, 63-year-old photo editor Bob Stevens, died last week of inhalation anthrax, while a second, identified by sources as mailroom worker Ernesto Blanco, was found to have a small amount of anthrax in his nose.
David Pecker, the president of American Media, told The Post that a woman librarian at the office building already being treated for pneumonia tested positive for anthrax exposure, in addition to the other two cases.
Florida health officials said late yesterday that only two people had come into contact with the bacteria.
Health experts say it is extremely unlikely that such a transmission - two men working in separate areas in an office building - could be accidental.
"You have to really, really reach to come up with a scenario where this is unintentional," said Professor Thomas Johnson, the director of the Division of Respiratory Therapy at Long Island University.
The building where the staffers worked - which houses The Globe, The Sun, The Star, The National Enquirer, and Weekly World News - was ordered sealed yesterday.
Attorney General John Ashcroft said the Boca Raton case "could become a clear criminal investigation" as the feds dig deeper.
"We don't have enough information to know whether this could be related to terrorism or not," Ashcroft said.
Officials did not consider foul play in Stevens' death until a test swab on the nostrils of another employee, presumably Blanco, turned up the anthrax bacteria.
Officials said the mailroom worker has not contracted any symptoms of the disease - a very important and encouraging sign.
Hundreds of frightened workers lined up at a Palm Beach County health facility to get tested for the bacteria and receive antibiotics.
Part of their fear stems from news accounts that terror ringleader Mohamed Atta took flying lessons about a mile from Stevens' Lantana, Fla., home. Atta and some of the other hijackers also lived in Florida cities not far from American Media.
"To tell you the truth, I'm terrified," said Globe reporter Felicia Levine.
"We're in an area surrounded by the terrorists, and this is a coincidence? The name of our company is American Media. I'm scared."
Health officials tried to reassure the company and the community, saying there was no public health threat.
"The risk is low," said Dr. John Agwunobi, Florida secretary of health.
Pecker said all the publications had shifted to temporary locations in a rush to put out their next editions, which went to press yesterday.
Employees were also asked to fill out questionnaires explaining how often they came into contact with the photo or mailroom areas, and if they've noticed anything unusual around the building since Sept. 11.
Meanwhile, in New York, Mayor Giuliani said there's no reason to fear an outbreak - but that area hospitals are on the lookout for possible symptoms.
"Given the events of the last four weeks, we now monitor that even more carefully," he said.
Also contributing to this story were Malcolm Balfour in Florida, Brian Blomquist in Washington, Braden Keil and David Seifman in New York. It was written by Devlin Barrett.
The article said: a germ culture from the victim was transported to a state laboratory in Richmond on Monday evening and would take at least 24 hours to analyze
The doctor said: all preliminary testing at Prince William Hospital has resulted in negative results for anthrax. The patient presented himself as suffering from confusion. Gram staining and flourescent examination showed negative for anthrax. Cat Scan normal. Lumbar puncrure normal, Slightly elevated white cell count which might indicate a slight viral infection.
This is a great example of hedging. Tests done at hospital: Gram stain, flourescent exam, cat scan, lumbar puncture, white cell count. These were essentially normal. But, the culture (which identifies the organism present), was sent to Richmond. Those results are not known yet because you allow the organism to grow on the medium for 24 hours to get enough to look at it under a microscope.
Bottom line: The doctor was telling the truth for those tests for which the results are known. He didn't remind you that he doesn't know the results of the culture yet.
We had a caller to a local talk show host who reported that two men of middle east extraction (or so it appeared) were filming and taking pictures of a local huge discount store under the flight appproach to Dulles International airport. The caller and his wife had the presence of mind to copy down the license plate number of the suspects' car and call the FBI. That is what all of us are doing, I hope. If you see suspicious activity report it. Law enforcement are all ears at this point.
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