5:38 PM EST,November 20, 2001 By Pete Yost, Associated Press Writer
HARTFORD, Conn. -- A patient a Griffin Hospital in Derby has tested positive for anthrax, Gov. John G. Rowland said today.
The patient, a person over 90 years old from the Oxford area, has tested positive for the inhalation form of the disease in five separate tests conducted by the Department of Public Health and the hospital, Rowland said during a news conference.
"It's difficult to explain how the person contracted anthrax," Rowland said. "There is no evidence they contracted the disease as a result of a criminal act."
Rowland said more tests are being conducted by the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. He said results are expected Wednesday.
"Testing by the CDC could prove negative," Rowland said.
The elderly woman was originally treated for pneumonia and was admitted to Griffin Hospital on Wednesday, Rowland said.
The tests conducted by the health department are more sophisticated than those conducted by the hospital, but not as accurate as CDC testing, said Joxel Garcia, the state's health commissioner.
Garcia said the state received positive tests from the hospital Monday and immediately began conducting their own investigation.
The FBI and the state police have secured the woman's home and are conducting a criminal investigation, Rowland said.
The woman lives by herself and has a limited routine, Rowland said.
Earlier, traces of the anthrax bacteria have been found in the office mailrooms of Sens. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., said one congressional official speaking on condition of anonymity.
Officials suspect the anthrax got there through contact with anthrax-bearing letters mailed to Sen. Patrick Leahy or Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D. So far, anthrax traces have been found in 13 senators' offices besides Daschle's, whose office is the only one known to have actually opened an anthrax letter.
A sample taken from a plastic evidence bag containing a still-unopened letter to Sen. Leahy contained at least 23,000 anthrax spores, enough for more than two lethal doses, authorities said today. Word of the anthrax spores in the Leahy letter, first reported by The New York Times, followed the FBI's announcement that it is convinced the Leahy letter was sent by the same person who mailed an anthrax-tainted letter to Daschle. Both were postmarked Oct. 9 in Trenton, N.J.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there were three times more anthrax spores in the single sample taken from the plastic bag than in any of the other 600 bags of mail examined by the FBI before it found the Leahy letter.
Investigators are looking into the possibility the Leahy letter was misrouted initially, resulting in anthrax contamination at a State Department mail facility that sickened one worker.
In Atlanta, meanwhile, Tom Skinner, spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Monday that the agency planned to test a substance found in a letter that the Chilean government said was tainted with anthrax. The government of Chile said the letter was from an American company in Switzerland to a company in downtown Santiago. It declined to identify either company.
The Leahy letter found Friday will be mined for information based on a plan by the FBI, the Army and outside science experts who want to maximize the evidentiary value of the document, the FBI said Monday.
"FBI and Centers for Disease Control investigators hope that this careful, scientifically agreed upon approach will yield clues that will help identify the source," the bureau said in a statement.
At the Pentagon, officials began taking new precautions against anthrax-tainted mail by requiring that all mail be opened, visually inspected, X-rayed and tested for biological or chemical materials. Once checked, mail will be held for up to three days to await test results before delivery inside the building.
The Leahy letter was found by the FBI and hazardous materials personnel from the Environmental Protection Agency in one of 280 barrels of unopened mail sent to Capitol Hill and held since the discovery last month of the letter to Daschle.
The outside of the Leahy letter appears virtually identical to the Daschle letter and bears the same fictitious "Greendale School" return address, all-capital block letters and other characteristics.
The matching characteristics of the Leahy and Daschle letters "have combined to convince investigators" that both were "sent by the same person," the FBI said.
U.S. postal inspector Dan Mihalko said the Leahy letter contains a handwritten ZIP code of 20510 that may have been read as 20520 by optical character reader machines at the postal service.
"That's the exact change needed to forward something to the State Department," Mihalko said.
"It raises an interesting possibility that the letter to Leahy could have been misdirected through the State Department mail system initially, which might explain how that system got contaminated," he added.
A 59-year-old employee of the State Department's mail facility in Sterling, Va., was hospitalized Oct. 25 after lab tests confirmed he had inhalation anthrax. He recovered.
On Capitol Hill, the Dirksen and Russell Senate Office buildings reopened Monday after being swept for anthrax contamination after the discovery of the Leahy letter. The Hart Senate Office Building remained closed.
The Kennedy and Dodd offices are both in the Russell building. People who work in those offices will not need medical treatment because the amounts of anthrax were so low, an official said.
In a statement, Kennedy said he would close his office early for the Thanksgiving holiday as a precaution while the mailroom is decontaminated, and expects to reopen Monday. He said the Capitol physician has concluded that the anthrax there "poses no public safety or health risk."
EPA officials have said it will take three to four weeks to decontaminate the offices of 10 senators in the Hart building in which traces of anthrax have been found, a Senate aide speaking on condition of anonymity said. Those cleanups have not yet started.
Two other offices where bacteria were found -- Daschle's and the next-door suite of Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis. -- will be sealed and cleaned with chlorine dioxide gas.
Officials originally hoped Hart, which houses half the Senate's 100 members, would be cleaned and reopened by Nov. 21. With the new cleanup timetable, authorities have set no new target date, but many aides believe the building may not reopen until next year.
The FBI said all congressional mail set aside after discovery of the Daschle letter had been inspected, and the Leahy letter was the only suspicious piece.
Four people have died from anthrax: two Washington postal workers, a hospital employee in New York City and a newspaper photo editor in Florida.
Sept. 18: Letters postmarked in Trenton, N.J.; sent to New York Post and NBC anchor Tom Brokaw. They later test positive for anthrax.(3)
Sept. 22: Editorial page assistant at New York Post who opens letters to the editor notices blister on her finger. Johanna Huden later tests positive for skin form of anthrax, more treatable form of disease.(3)
Sept 24: FAA grounds crop-duster planes after the FBI warns of potential chemical or biological attacks from them. An employee of Belle Glade Airport, Florida has identified Mohamed Atta, whom the FBI believes piloted the American Airlines flight from Boston which slammed into the WTC. He is identified as one of a group of Middle Eastern men who visited Belle Glade in the months before the crash, asking for specific details about crop-dusters.(9)
Sept. 26: Unidentified maintenance worker at Trenton regional post office in Hamilton, N.J., visits physician to have lesion on arm treated.(3)
Sept. 27: Teresa Heller, letter carrier at West Trenton post office, develops lesion on her arm.(3)
Sept. 28: Erin O'Connor, assistant to NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw, notices a lesion.(3)
Sept 28: The baby, believed to have visited newsroom on Sept. 28, is taking antibiotics and expected to recover.(3)
Sept. 30: Bob Stevens, photo editor at supermarket tabloid The Sun in Boca Raton, Fla., starts to feel ill.(3)
Oct. 1: Ernesto Blanco, mailroom employee at American Media Inc., publisher of The Sun, admitted to hospital with heart problems. O'Connor begins taking Cipro.(3)
Oct. 2: Stevens admitted to hospital.(3)
Oct. 3: In New Jersey, Heller is hospitalized and biopsy is performed.(3)
Oct. 4: Authorities confirm Stevens has inhaled form of anthrax, most deadly form of disease. Claire Fletcher, assistant to CBS News anchor Dan Rather, begins taking penicillin after visiting doctor. Later, she's tested for anthrax after NBC case becomes public.(3)
Oct. 5: Stevens dies. First U.S. death from inhaled anthrax since 1976.(3)
Oct. 9: FBI pursues anthrax lead Agents are combing the offices of a magazine publishers where anthrax traces have been found (2)
Oct. 9: Letter postmarked Oct 9th Trenton, N.J.; sent to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle. It later tests positive for anthrax. (3)
Oct. 10 3rd anthrax case Officials launched a criminal investigation into the source of the disease. US embassies were told to stock up on the antibiotic (2)
Oct. 10: FBI takes investigative lead in Boca Raton, Fl as anthrax spores are discovered in a hospitalized man (9)
Oct. 12: Officials announce O'Connor at NBC developed skin anthrax after opening letter.(3)
Oct 12: Leahy's office decides to set aside all unopened mail after anthraxcontaminated letter was sent to NBC anchor Tom Brokaw. (5)
Oct. 14: Letter containing anthrax opened in Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle's office. Daschle's office quarantined.(3)
Oct. 15: 2 new anthrax cases A baby boy of an ABC News employee and a 73-year-old employee of the Sun tabloid - have been diagnosed (2)
Oct. 15: Officials say infant son of ABC News producer in New York developed skin anthrax. The baby, believed to have visited newsroom on Sept. 28, is taking antibiotics and expected to recover.(3)
Oct. 16: Twelve Senate offices closed; hundreds of staffers get tests.(3)
Oct 16: Since 10/1 FBI has responded to 2,300 incidents or suspected incidents involving anthrax (9)
Oct. 17: Thirty-one people at U.S. Capitol test positive for exposure to anthrax, officials say. Later, more complete tests show only 28 actually exposed. House shuts down for testing. Senate stays open two more days. New York Gov. George Pataki's Manhattan office evacuated after test detects presence of anthrax. No one tests positive for exposure.(3)
Oct 18: House of Rep suspends work until Monday Oct 22.
Oct. 18: Fletcher at CBS tests positive for skin anthrax. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hold special Webcast to teach doctors how to recognize anthrax. New Jersey letter carrier who first got lesion on Sept. 27 diagnosed with skin anthrax. Another postal worker likely had skin anthrax, though tests inconclusive.(3)
Oct. 19: New York Post announces Huden is diagnosed with skin anthrax. Another New Jersey postal worker, at Hamilton regional office, tests positive for skin anthrax. FBI questions residents, businesses on New Jersey mail route of infected letter carrier. Anthrax bacteria strains in Florida, New York and Washington may have been from same batch, Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge says.(3)
Oct. 19 Anthrax strains the same Strains sent to NBC in NY, the Sun tabloid in Florida and to the Senate come from the same source (2)
Oct 20: The FBI identifies a mail sorting faciltly in Trenton, New Jersey as location from which the anthraxcontaminated letters to Brokaw and Daschel were sent (9)
Oct. 20: Tests confirm anthrax traces found in mail-bundling machine at House office building a few blocks from the Capitol. (3)
Oct. 21: Washington postal worker gravely ill with inhalation anthrax; five others sick. Officials close two postal facilities, begin testing thousands of postal employees. Later that night, postal worker Thomas L. Morris Jr. dies. New Jersey health officials say work areas, but not public areas, at Hamilton post office test positive for anthrax spores. Washington postal worker Joseph P. Curseen goes to Maryland hospital complaining of flu-like symptoms. He is sent home (3)
Oct. 22: Curseen returns to hospital at 5:45 a.m. by ambulance; dies six hours later of inhalation anthrax. Two other postal workers hospitalized in serious but stable condition. House and Senate reopen; office buildings remain closed. (3)
Oct 22: Two Washington D.C. postal workers die of what officials suspect is anthrax (9)
Oct. 23: Anthrax found on machinery at military base that sorts mail for White House; all tests at White House itself come back negative. President Bush says: "I don't have anthrax." Officials announce that unidentified New Jersey postal worker at Hamilton office is hospitalized with suspected case of inhalation anthrax. Ernesto Blanco released from hospital after 23 days(3,9)
Oct 23: The investigative trail at the New Jersey mail facility that is believed to have processed the letters sent to Tom Brokaw, The NY Post and Senator Tom Daschle is at a dead end (9)
Oct. 24: Surgeon General David Satcher admits "we were wrong" not to respond more aggressively to tainted mail in Washington. Three new cases of suspected inhalation anthrax announced in Maryland suburbs, all linked to Daschle letter.(3)
Oct. 25: An employee at the State Department's mail facility is hospitalized with anthrax and the Postal Service sets up spot checks at facilities nationwide. Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge says the anthrax the Daschle letter was highly concentrated and made "to be more easily absorbed" by its victims The number of Americans taking antibiotics for possible anthrax exposure reaches 10,000.(3,9)
Oct 25: Homeland Security Chief confirms anthrax used in letters to Brokaw, NY Post, American Media Inc and Senator Daschel is from same strain produced in Iowa and used in research all over the world. (9)
Oct. 26: The Supreme Court building is ordered shut down for anthrax testing. Postal workers demand the closure of anthrax-tainted buildings in New York and Florida, with (3)
Oct. 30: Call to shut US anthrax mailrooms Postal union leaders have filed a lawsuit, demanding that 13 sorting offices infected with anthrax be closed... (2)
Nov 2: Investigators reviewing video and computer tapes of potical scanners that 'read' handwritten envelopes at post office. (8)
Nov 2: FBI agents raid a Trenton N.J. apartment (8)
Nov 9: "AMERITHRAX" is the code name assigned to the federal investigation (8)
Nov 13: US Attorneys begin interviewing 5,000 men who have entered country since Jan 2000 (8)
Nov 17: The Dirksen and Russell buildings were closed after envelope addressed to Sen Patrick Leahy discovered (4,7)
Nov. 18: Dirksen and Russell buildings to reopen at 8 a.m. Monday. The Hart Senate Office Building, will remain closed. (6)
1. Las Vegas, Harris 1998 timeline. http://www.lasvegassun.com/dossier/crime/bio/timeline.html
2. Florida timeline 2001 http://www.mapreport.com/countries/florida.html
3. http://www.imdiversity.com/villages/native/article_detail.asp?Article_ID=7572
4. http://www.icflorida.com/shared/news/ap/ap_story.html/National/AP.V0466.AP-Attacks-Anthrax.html
5. http://www.icflorida.com/shared/news/ap/ap_story.html/National/AP.V0466.AP-Attacks-Anthrax.html
6. http://www.icflorida.com/shared/news/ap/ap_story.html/National/AP.V0576.AP-Attacks-Anthrax.html
7. http://www.icflorida.com/shared/news/ap/ap_story.html/National/AP.V0576.AP-Attacks-Anthrax.html
8. http://www.crime.com/feature/terrorism/timeline.html
9. http://www.crime.com/feature/terrorism/timeline_01.html
10. http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel01/102301.htm gif of envelopes
I can add tha the letter to Senator Leahy was postmarked October 9, 2001 from Trenton, NJ
Now the lady from Conn. had the inhiliation Anthrax and has no connection to anyone as far as we know. Just like the poor woman in NYC.