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Strains of anthrax discovered in Florida, NY, Washington indistinguishable
US officials have announced that anthrax strains discovered in Florida, New York and Washington appear to be identical and have not been altered to turn them into biological weapons.
US officials have announced that anthrax strains discovered in Florida, New York and Washington appear to be identical and have not been altered to turn them into biological weapons.
The announcement was made shortly after a New York Post employee became the seventh person nationwide to contract the illness. At a White House news conference on Friday Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge said that the anthrax may have come from the same batch, but could have been distributed to different individuals to infect different communities. In New York, city health officials said in a memo the ill employee at the New York Post newspaper was being treated and doing well.
The memo said it is "likely the employee may have been infected while opening the mail." Company spokesman Lachlan Murdoch said the person testing positive for anthrax was considered fully cured.
One man has died and a second man remains ill in Florida after inhaling anthrax spores.
Other cases of a less dangerous form of the disease have been traced to a letter mailed to NBC anchorman Tom Brokaw in New York.
Another thirty-one people tested positive for exposure in Washington after the delivery of an anthrax-tainted letter to the office of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle. Officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that after additional tests, three of the 31 have been determined not to have been exposed.
The developments came as federal investigators struggled to trace the origin of a spate of anthrax-bearing letters, and administration officials said they still had no evidence of a connection between the bioterrorism and the September 11 suicide hijackings which killed more than 5,000 people in New York and Washington.
Six people had previously been diagnosed with anthrax in the past two weeks, including one at a New Jersey postal facility where tainted letters to Daschle and Brokaw were processed.
Postal workers' unions are furious that managers have not given staff guidelines to protect themselves from anthrax exposure if they inadvertently handle infected letters.
Bureau Report
The announcement was made shortly after a New York Post employee became the seventh person nationwide to contract the illness. At a White House news conference on Friday Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge said that the anthrax may have come from the same batch, but could have been distributed to different individuals to infect different communities. In New York, city health officials said in a memo the ill employee at the New York Post newspaper was being treated and doing well.
The memo said it is "likely the employee may have been infected while opening the mail." Company spokesman Lachlan Murdoch said the person testing positive for anthrax was considered fully cured.
One man has died and a second man remains ill in Florida after inhaling anthrax spores.
Other cases of a less dangerous form of the disease have been traced to a letter mailed to NBC anchorman Tom Brokaw in New York.
Another thirty-one people tested positive for exposure in Washington after the delivery of an anthrax-tainted letter to the office of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle. Officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that after additional tests, three of the 31 have been determined not to have been exposed.
The developments came as federal investigators struggled to trace the origin of a spate of anthrax-bearing letters, and administration officials said they still had no evidence of a connection between the bioterrorism and the September 11 suicide hijackings which killed more than 5,000 people in New York and Washington.
Six people had previously been diagnosed with anthrax in the past two weeks, including one at a New Jersey postal facility where tainted letters to Daschle and Brokaw were processed.
Postal workers' unions are furious that managers have not given staff guidelines to protect themselves from anthrax exposure if they inadvertently handle infected letters.
Bureau Report