A nasal swab from the patient tested positive for the anthrax bacterium, said Tim O'Conner, regional spokesman for Florida's health department.
It was not yet clear if anthrax had only infiltrated his nose or had gotten into his lungs, officials said. Relatively large anthrax spores that lodge in the upper respiratory tract are less dangerous than smaller spores that get into the lungs.
Doctors "describe his condition as good right now," O'Conner said. "He hasn't been diagnosed with the disease, there's just a presence of (the disease) in his nostrils."
"He was given a nasal swab because he happened to be in a hospital and he was ill," said Barbara Reynolds, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
O'Conner and Reynolds said they did not know what symptoms of illness the man displayed or whether any of the symptoms were consistent with anthrax. The disease in early stages may resemble the flu.
Good thing this guy was sick with an unrelated illness right? The media is soft pedaling this big time.
I thought they were swabbing everybody. He just happanned to be in the hospital? They haven't swabbed the entire staff yet?