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Anthrax Reported in New York NBC Employee, No Connection to September 11: FBI
NEW YORK, Oct 12 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A female employee at the U.S. television network, NBC, in New York, has been infected with skin anthrax, NBC said Friday, but the case is not being linked with the events of September 11, the FBI said.
"We see no connection at all with 9-11," said Barry Mawn, deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation office in New York.
NBC announced earlier that a female employee in its news division had tested positive for a form of the disease called "cutaneous" anthrax after coming into contact with a powdery substance contained in a letter sent to NBC's offices at Rockefeller Center in New York.
"An NBC news employee based in New York has tested positive for a skin anthrax infection," NBC reported on their news program at 12:00 p.m. (11 a.m. EST).
"NBC President Andrew Lack reports that it is not the same respiratory anthrax that has been reported in the news."
ABCNEWS reported that tests of the suspicious piece of mail were negative, even though the woman tested positive for anthrax.
But an MSNBC report said that a letter similar to the one sent to NBC, containing a "powdery substance," was also sent to the
New York Times, some of whose offices in Manhattan were evacuated while hazardous material crews examined the letter.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said that "white powder was found" in an office that handles congressional correspondence there. Hazardous materials workers were called in, but no evacuations were necessary, according to a CNN report.
Meanwhile, four postal workers in Englewood, Colorado, who were exposed to a powder that fell out of a package at their facility, were taken to a hospital emergency room for testing, the report added. The hospital and the post office were sealed off Friday morning as a precaution.
NBC said the woman had been responding well to treatment and was expected to make a full recovery, and that the White House had been informed about the case.
The New York City health department was not immediately available for comment, but Mayor Rudy Giuliani told a news conference there was no reason for the public to be concerned, according to the ABCNEWS report.
"This is in very good hands," he said.
ABCNEWS said that nearly 95% of all known anthrax cases are cutaneous anthrax, in which the bacterium enters the skin through a cut or abrasion, and that this form is rarely fatal with treatment.
Cutaneous anthrax is less serious than the airborne type, which was inhaled by three newspaper workers in Florida, one of whom died.
Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said Friday that people who have been prescribed antibiotics in the wake of an outbreak of anthrax should complete the 60-day course of treatment even if subsequent tests show up negative.
"To date, nearly 1,000 people have been given health guidance and protective antibiotics," the Atlanta-based CDC said in a statement.
"A negative swab result does not rule out a possible exposure. For that reason, people must complete the full 60-day course, regardless of the results of the nasal swab."
People who worked or spent time in the American Media Inc. (AMI) building in Boca Raton, Florida, underwent tests for anthrax following the death a week ago of Robert Stevens, 63, a photo editor at
The Sun newspaper there.
Two other employees were also found to have been exposed to the deadly virus.
An investigation has so far "confirmed a single case of anthrax illness in a patient who died," the CDC said, noting that two others had "laboratory confirmation of exposure."
Ernesto Blanco, a 73-year-old mailroom worker at AMI - which publishes a number of other tabloid newspapers - is still in a hospital, while exposure in co-worker Stephanie Dailey, 35, was detected Wednesday. She is not hospitalized at this time.
FBI agents and health officials wearing biohazard suits have been conducting a thorough search of the three story building after anthrax spores were found on Stevens' keyboard, apparently after he inhaled the bacteria.
MSNBC reported that the Florida cases are being treated as a criminal case, and that FBI officials reiterated that there is no connection between the anthrax cases and any suspicion of terrorist activities.
The sudden appearance of the anthrax cases - the first in 17 years - so soon after the terrorist attacks has led to a media and public frenzy regarding the possibility of anthrax being used as a bio-terrorism weapon.
While government officials are serious about the possibility, they continue to urge citizens to remain calm, as no evidence has linked the recent cases to terrorism.
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