Posted on 11/24/2001 1:00:45 AM PST by JohnHuang2
CDC confirms anthrax in letter to Chile
Return address was OrlandoBY TIM JOHNSON AND CASSIO FURTADO
tjohnson@krwashington.comThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed Friday that a letter sent to a pediatrician in the Chilean capital of Santiago contained traces of anthrax, the first known case of an anthrax-tainted letter received outside the United States.
The letter bore a postmark from Zurich, Switzerland, but it had a return address from Orlando. It was mailed to Dr. Antonio Banfi, authorities said, but neither he nor anyone in his office has become sick from the letter.
After positive preliminary testing, Chilean authorities sent the envelope to the United States for examination, Jeanette Vega, director of Chile's Public Health Institute, said in a telephone interview.
``The results confirm anthrax,'' said Kathy Harben, a spokeswoman for the CDC in Atlanta. She said the letter was tested by a Florida Health Department laboratory in Miami that collaborates with the CDC.
The Chilean case is the latest twist in a bioterrorism mystery that has confounded health and law enforcement officials in the United States -- and now South America -- while killing five people and sickening 12 others.
The latest U.S. case, the death from inhalation anthrax of a 94-year-old woman from Oxford, Conn., was no closer to being resolved Friday. Gov. John Rowland said samples from Ottilie Lundgren's home came back negative -- as did two weeks' worth of her mail, tests at two local postal facilities, and swabs of 400 postal workers.
Investigators still have the road to Lundgren's home blocked and continue to trace her steps, including trips to church. Some samples were taken Friday from places she visited, including a beauty parlor. ``We haven't ruled anything in, or anything out,'' said CDC spokeswoman Lisa Swenarski.
Dr. Segaran Pillai, director of the state public health lab in Miami, said his lab tested a culture from the letter to Banfi and confirmed it was anthrax.
``We've tested several other letters from the Bahamas, Argentina and the Dominican Republic and they all came back negative except this one,'' Pillai said.
Because the lab received only the culture, it was unable to test the paper or envelope. Nor could it compare the writing on the envelope with that on the other mail that carried anthrax in the United States.
Banfi, a pediatrician and infectious disease expert, received the tainted letter Nov. 13. ``It was with a lot of other letters,'' said a receptionist who gave her name only as Lucia, at Banfi's clinic in the upscale Santiago neighborhood of Las Condes.
Vega, the Chilean public health official, said Banfi immediately became suspicious. ``Since there was a discrepancy between the return address in the United States and the stamp from Zurich, he turned it over to the police,'' Vega said.
Banfi and 11 postal and health clinic workers are taking antibiotics as a precaution.
The white envelope contained no visible signs of anthrax, but when health experts swabbed the inside, they found five areas that contained the bacteria, Vega said. Health officials are studying the genetic makeup of the anthrax to determine the strain.
The anthrax crisis is straining health officials around the world. In Chile alone, the Health Ministry said in a statement that it has tested 368 letters that recipients considered suspicious.
Herald staff writer Nicole White contributed to this report.
This article has more info, including what was in the envelope. Very mysterious.
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