The anthrax scare in the US mounted on Monday when it was announced that a letter sent to a congressman had tested positive for the spores, and that a seven-month-old son of a newsman had caught the disease after spending some time in the newsroom.
Agencies said that the letter opened in the office of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle tested positive for anthrax, prompting a criminal investigation into a bioterrorism scare that has now spread to Capitol Hill.
Capitol Police Lt. Dan Nichols said the letter, which was opened by Daschle aides, contained a powdery substance. He said two preliminary field tests on the letter were positive for anthrax. The letter was then sent to an Army medical research facility at Fort Detrick, Md., for further tests.
``There was an exposure when the letter was opened,'' Nichols said.
The senate said there were 40 people in his office at the time, but that he doesn't know how many of them may have come in contact with the letter. He said he also was gratified that the response was so quick.
Speaking to reporters at the White House, Bush said “there may be some possible link'' between Osama bin Laden and a recent flurry of anthrax-related developments.
“I wouldn't put it past him but we don't have any hard evidence,'' he said of the man suspected as the leader behind September 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington that killed thousands.
BABY CONTARCTS ANTHRAX
Later, a baby tested positive for anthrax after being taken on a visit to ABC News in New York, ratcheting up nationwide fear over the deadly bacterium, said AFP.
Blood tests on the seven-month-old boy, the son of an ABC staffer, showed the child had contracted skin anthrax.
Meanwhile, a 73-year-old employee of American Media Inc. in Florida was found to have the more serious respiratory form.
A total of four people in the United States have now been confirmed to have anthrax, while nine other people have been exposed to the bacterium but have not developed the illness.
ABC News President David Westin told reporters it was believed the boy contracted skin anthrax during a visit lasting several hours on September 28.
"I would emphasize this is coetaneous anthrax...that is of course the much less dangerous one, the one that can be treated with antibiotics," he told a news conference.
"My understanding is that the child has responded well and the prognosis is excellent," he said.
Westin said no other employees had shown any signs of contracting the disease and that so far no traces of anthrax had been found at ABC headquarters in New York.
CHRONOLOGY OF ANTHRAX SCARE
Following is a chronology of the anthrax cases in the US, according to Sun Sentinel.com
Tuesday, Sept. 25: An employee of NBC News in New York reports receiving an envelope, postmarked Sept. 20, with a powdery substance.
Monday, Oct. 1: The NBC employee goes to her doctor with a low-grade fever and a bad rash and is prescribed the antibiotic Cipro, which is successful in preventing anthrax disease from developing but is also used to treat other infections.
Tuesday, Oct. 2: At 2:30am, American Media Inc. photo editor Robert Stevens arrives at JFK Medical Center in Atlantis with 102-degree fever, vomiting and confusion. His condition deteriorates rapidly.
Wednesday, Oct. 3: Doctors determine Stevens, 63, has anthrax. He is on a respirator, being treated with intravenous penicillin. David Pecker, the chairman and CEO of AMI, sends an e-mail out to all employees: "We have just learned that an employee has been presumptively diagnosed with anthrax. The health department is aware of this situation and has informed us that the chance of this being contagious is virtually nonexistent."
Thursday, Oct 4: AMI calls the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to ask whether its Boca Raton headquarters should be evacuated. The CDC says no, and everyone continues working as usual at AMI. That afternoon, JFK Medical Center along with the Florida Department of Health's Dr. Steven Wiersma call a news conference to confirm that a patient has anthrax. They stress that it is a public health investigation, not a criminal one, and they believe it is an isolated case.
Friday, Oct. 5: Teams from the CDC fan out to Stevens' home and office. At AMI's Boca Raton headquarters, they collect samples from Stevens' work area and some co-workers. Wiersma says the likelihood that this is an isolated case has grown, because no new anthrax cases emerged overnight. At JFK's intensive care unit, Stevens suffers cardiac arrest and cannot be revived. He is removed from the respirator and pronounced dead about 4:00pm, becoming the first anthrax fatality in the United States since 1976.
Saturday, Oct. 6: The state health department announces that Stevens is the only victim so far, and that tests on three other worrisome cases from the same area were negative for anthrax.
Sunday, Oct. 7: At 7:00pm the CDC notifies Pecker that they intend to seal the building because test samples have shown anthrax spores on Stevens' computer keyboard and in the nasal passages of an AMI employee who delivered mail to other workers there, and was being treated in a Miami hospital.
Monday, Oct. 8: In Miami, the family of Ernesto Blanco, 73, an AMI mailroom worker who has been hospitalized with pneumonia since Oct. 1, is notified that Blanco has tested positive for anthrax exposure. He has no symptoms of anthrax infection. Employees of AMI line up at the Delray Health Center to be tested and to receive a two-week supply of an antibiotic that is effective against the disease. They will need to take the medication for 60 days.
Tuesday, Oct. 9: In New York, a skin biopsy is performed on the NBC employee. In South Florida, the FBI says it found no traces of anthrax in the known places the September 11 hijackers had stayed, or in Stevens' home or the places he frequented. Federal and state officials said they now believe the case is an isolated incident of "foul play." President Bush tries to assure anxious Americans that the Florida cases do not warrant national alarm.
Wednesday, Oct. 10: Federal investigators announce that a third AMI employee has tested positive for anthrax exposure and that the AMI case has become a criminal investigation. They say they have found no evidence of anthrax contamination outside AMI offices, and no link between the contamination and the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Thursday, Oct. 11: Federal officials say they have found more anthrax spores in the AMI mailroom. Postal workers demand to be tested for anthrax exposure, fearful of both the mail they are handling and the knowledge that Blanco routinely picked up AMI mail at a Boca Raton post office. The third AMI employee to test positive for anthrax exposure, Stephanie Dailey, 36, announces from her Boynton Beach home that she is on antibiotics and feels fine.
Friday, Oct. 12: In New York, the skin biopsy tests on the NBC employee reveal that she had been exposed to anthrax, making her the fourth confirmed exposure to the potential germ warfare agent at a media company. NBC offices are sealed off while investigators conduct tests.
At The New York Times, journalist Judith Miller, co-author of a book on bioterrorism, reports that she received an envelope containing a powdery substance. The newspaper's Times Square newsroom is evacuated. Investigators say they do not yet have evidence of any connection between the New York and Boca Raton cases, or any link to the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Saturday, Oct. 13: Five more employees of the Boca Raton tabloid publisher American Media Inc. test positive for the presence of anthrax bacteria. The employees are put on antibiotics and are not expected to develop the disease.
A threatening letter sent to Tom Brokaw one week after the September 11 attack tests positive for the skin anthrax that infected Brokaw's assistant. A second NBC News employee who handled the letter reports having possible symptoms.
In Reno, Nev., a third anthrax test on a letter allegedly sent from Malaysia to a Microsoft office comes back positive.
Sunday, Oct. 14: The number of individuals exposed to anthrax grows to 12. Three new cases - a police officer and two lab technicians involved in an investigation at NBC's New York headquarters - tested positive for the bacteria, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani announced. Nevada officials said four people who may have come into contact with a contaminated letter at a Microsoft office tested negative, while results weren't known for two others – Albawaba.com
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