WASHINGTON - A postal worker was "gravely ill" on Sunday with an inhaled anthrax infection - the most deadly form of a rare disease that has already killed one man and frightened millions in workplaces across the United States.
The unidentified man worked in an office that sorts mail for the
US Capitol, which last week received a letter laced with the potential germ warfare agent. He was hospitalised on Friday with flu-like symptoms.
In a spate of cases involving mail along the Eastern Coast this month, nine people have become infected with anthrax although most have contracted the skin form, which responds well to antibiotics.
The Washington postal worker has the more serious inhaled anthrax, whose potentially lethal spores have turned up in media organisations, postal facilities and in the seat of the US legislature over the last few weeks.
"We are considering this the third case of inhalational anthrax," Mary Kay Sones, a spokeswoman for the Centres for Disease Control in Atlanta, said.
The government has been cautious about naming a possible culprit, although President George W. Bush has said he "wouldn't put it past" Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden - the chief suspect behind the Sept. 11 aerial strikes on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Secretary of State Colin Powell, in an interview with CNN on yesterday, was asked whether Iraq might be involved in the anthrax bio-terrorism.
"I just don't know ... I don't put it past Iraq. We know they have been working on this kind of terror weapon and we keep a very close eye on them," Powell said.
Washington Mayor Anthony Williams yesterday offered prayers and condolences to the family of the sick postal worker, telling reporters that he was "gravely ill."
City officials said the Brentwood postal facility where the man worked, and another mail facility at Baltimore-Washington International airport where he also worked, would be shut down indefinitely and some 2,300 employees would be tested and given precautionary antibiotic treatment.
But the latest case had city and health officials puzzled, adding to the climate of fear and confusion that has sent thousands of Americans scurrying to pharmacies and produced scenes of decontamination workers in all-enveloping, white suits usually seen only in science fiction movies.
Officials said there had been no positive identification as yet of anthrax spores in the Brentwood mail processing facility.
"I don't have a good answer for why a postal worker who handled packages has inhalation anthrax," Rima Khabbaz, a doctor for the Center for Disease Controls, told a news conference on Sunday.
"We are still investigating the specific circumstances. We don't have any obvious history of his handling any open packages or leaking packages," Khabbaz said.
Anthrax, commonly found in animals but rare in humans, is not contagious.
Inhaling anthrax spores is usually fatal. Initial flu-like symptoms are typically followed after a few days by breathing difficulties and shock.
Bob Stevens, a photographer in Florida, has died from inhaled anthrax. Florida state health officials had said a colleague of the man who died was not confirmed as having inhaled anthrax even though he became ill after exposure to the bacteria. But the CDC said yesterday the man was now a case of diagnosed inhaled anthrax infection.
Four people connected with media firms in New York and two postal workers in New Jersey have also been infected with skin anthrax, which generally produces a bump similar to an insect bite and responds well to antibiotics.
Other people, including 28 who work at the US Senate, have also been exposed to anthrax bacteria.
Environmental experts spent the weekend sweeping Senate and House of Representatives office buildings, the connecting tunnel system and parts of the Capitol itself following the discovery a letter laced with anthrax was sent to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle's office.
Capitol Hill police spokesman Dan Nichols said yesterday there had been no new positive tests for anthrax spores after the four positive "hits" in the Hart senate office building, the Dirksen building mail room, the Ford House office building mail room and the US Capitol police offsite delivery centre.
Congressional leaders are expected to decide later whether to reopen the House and Senate for business tomorrow following an unprecedented shutdown of the House at the end of business on Wednesday.
Investigators have said strains of anthrax previously found in Florida, New York and Washington were indistinguishable, suggesting they came from the same source.
- REUTERS
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Postal worker gravely ill from anthrax
WASHINGTON - A postal worker was "gravely ill" on Sunday with an inhaled anthrax infection - the most deadly form of a rare disease that has already killed one man and frightened millions in workplaces across the United States.
The unidentified man worked in an office that sorts mail for the
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