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Connecticut woman dies of anthrax
A 94-year-old Connecticut woman diagnosed with inhalation anthrax died Wednesday, hospital officials announced.
A 94-year-old Connecticut woman diagnosed with inhalation anthrax died Wednesday, hospital officials announced.
She is the nation's fifth anthrax fatality since anthrax-laced letters began showing up in the mail last month.
Ottilie Lundgren was admitted Friday to Griffin Hospital in Derby. "The woman has not been all that mobile, 94 years old, very limited schedule," Connecticut Gov. John Rowland told CNN in an interview before Lundgren's death. "So we're really perplexed as to how this anthrax ... could have gotten to her."
Rowland said he didn't believe Lundgren was a "target of terrorism," but authorities are operating on the premise that she contracted anthrax via "cross contamination" through the mail. No suspicious letter has been found at her home.
"We're obviously focusing on the mail because that has been the cause of other anthrax scares in the past," Rowland said.
Lundgren was the first anthrax case in Connecticut and the first in the United States in about three weeks. Her diagnosis, confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, raised the number of anthrax cases to 18 -- 11 of them the more serious inhalation anthrax and seven of them cutaneous.
Four other people who contracted inhalation anthrax died, including Kathy Nguyen, a hospital worker who, like Lundgren, had no known connection to media outlets or government offices -- apparent targets for most of the cases.
"There's no evidence now to explain where [the anthrax has] come from," said Dr. Howard Quentzel, chief of infectious disease at Griffin Hospital.
Bureau Report
Ottilie Lundgren was admitted Friday to Griffin Hospital in Derby. "The woman has not been all that mobile, 94 years old, very limited schedule," Connecticut Gov. John Rowland told CNN in an interview before Lundgren's death. "So we're really perplexed as to how this anthrax ... could have gotten to her."
Rowland said he didn't believe Lundgren was a "target of terrorism," but authorities are operating on the premise that she contracted anthrax via "cross contamination" through the mail. No suspicious letter has been found at her home.
"We're obviously focusing on the mail because that has been the cause of other anthrax scares in the past," Rowland said.
Lundgren was the first anthrax case in Connecticut and the first in the United States in about three weeks. Her diagnosis, confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, raised the number of anthrax cases to 18 -- 11 of them the more serious inhalation anthrax and seven of them cutaneous.
Four other people who contracted inhalation anthrax died, including Kathy Nguyen, a hospital worker who, like Lundgren, had no known connection to media outlets or government offices -- apparent targets for most of the cases.
"There's no evidence now to explain where [the anthrax has] come from," said Dr. Howard Quentzel, chief of infectious disease at Griffin Hospital.
Bureau Report