WASHINGTON, Oct. 25 (UPI) -- U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Thursday an employee of the department has tested positive for an anthrax infection.
"We are telling people a State Department employee, an employee at our mail-handling facility, has anthrax," Boucher said. "It is a positive blood culture. We don't know how he got it."
The office of Washington Mayor Anthony Williams said the man was hospitalized with a confirmed case of inhalation anthrax infection.
The employee worked at the State Department's main mail handling facility in Sterling, Va. The mail comes to the facility from the Brentwood mail facility in Washington, where two U.S. Postal Service employees have died of inhalation anthrax infections.
All employees at the Sterling mail handling facility were put on a 10-day prescription for Cipro, the antibiotic specifically prescribed for anthrax. The Sterling facility was closed, according to Boucher.
Regular mail service for the State Department, including unclassified diplomatic pouches, was suspended while delivery of classified diplomatic pouches continued.
Since the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center, FBI counter-terrorism agents have on two occasions swept the State Department building after employees from the mailroom reported packages containing suspicious powder. In both occasions the State Department did not evacuate the building.
The State Department on Wednesday placed all mailroom employees on the anthrax antibiotic.
Earlier this month, all embassies were instructed to purchase a three-day supply of Cipro. On Wednesday, the State Department issued new guidelines for opening mail coming into the department.
