Posted on 10/12/2001 12:44:55 PM PDT by RickyJ
NEW YORK CITY, Oct. 12 — An NBC News employee has tested positive for anthrax after handling a letter filled with a "powdery substance" that arrived at NBC's New York headquarters on Sept. 25, network officials said Friday. An FBI official said there was no evidence linking the case to either the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks or the outbreak of anthrax in Florida.
WORD OF THE fourth recent case of anthrax in the United States came in a memo from Andrew Lack, NBC's president and chief operating officer, and Chairman and CEO Bob Wright. The memo said that a female employee had tested positive for "cutaneous anthrax" — which is contracted through the skin rather than through breathing. That is a different type of the bacteria than the airborne type that infected three newspaper workers in Florida, one of whom died, and is not highly contagious, health officials said.
At a news conference shortly after the memo was distributed to NBC employees, Lack said the female employee, who was identified as a "Nightly News" staffer, was being treated with antibiotics and was expected to make a full recovery. The disease was detected after the employee, who was not identified, came down with "a low-grade fever and a bad rash," said New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who also spoke at the news conference.
Giuliani said that out of "an excess of caution," the third floor and two other portions of the network's headquarters would be closed for several days while environmental tests are conducted. Network employees who may have come in contact with the letter also would be tested for anthrax and given antibiotics as a precaution, he said.
CALM URGED
"People should not overreact to this," he said. "Everyone wants to go the extra lengths to assure that there are no problems."
Meanwhile, a portion of the New York Times offices in Manhattan were evacuated while hazardous materials crews examined a letter containing a "powdery substance" similar to the letter sent to NBC. No other details on the incident were immediately available.
Barry Mawn, the head of the FBI's New York office, said there was no evidence connecting the case to either the terrorist attacks or the anthrax outbreak in Florida. But he added, "We are in coordination with our Miami office to see if there (are) any similarities."
Lack, Wright and Giuliani said at the news conference that the New York City Department of Health, the federal Centers for Disease Control and the FBI were notified shortly after the employee opened the suspicious letter, which was mailed to NBC's headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Center.
TESTS INITIALLY WERE NEGATIVE
Multiple tests of the powder came back negative, but a skin biopsy of the employee came back positive for cutaneous anthrax. Officials at the White House said President Bush was informed of the new case early Friday.
The anthrax case was the first recent one reported outside Florida, where investigators have been attempting to identify the source of the deadly bacteria that has been detected in three workers at a company that publishes tabloid newspapers. One of the employees died.
The FBI reported Thursday that investigators have found traces of anthrax in the mailroom of the company's office. As theories swirled about the origin of the anthrax, officials said there was no evidence it was stolen from a laboratory.
Federal officials began a criminal investigation into the source of anthrax contamination at the Boca Raton headquarters of American Media after a third person — 36-year-old Stephanie Dailey — tested positive for exposure Wednesday night.
Dailey, who worked in the mailroom of the tabloid The Sun with Ernesto Blanco, 73, who also had anthrax spores in his nasal passages, returned to work in temporary offices Thursday.
"I just want to say I'm fine," she told a crowd of reporters from her front yard in nearby Boynton Beach.
She is taking antibiotics and has shown no symptoms of anthrax disease. Blanco has been in good condition in the hospital receiving antibiotics since Monday. Dailey refused to discuss how she may have come into contact with the bacteria, citing the ongoing investigation. She is an office services associate whose duties include receiving packages and delivering the mail.
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