WASHINGTON, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- The anthrax investigation focused on the nation's capital Monday, where a second postal worker was diagnosed with an inhalation anthrax infection and two others have died in cases health officials strongly suspected are anthrax related.
District of Columbia public health spokesman Dr. Ivan Walks said the second ill postal worker, a dock worker, was hospitalized at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Fairfax, Va., where the first worker, who works with Express and Priority mail, was admitted on Friday and Monday was reported to be in serious condition. Both men worked at the Brentwood postal site near Capitol Hill, where investigators suspect a letter containing anthrax was originally handled and forwarded on to the office of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D.
The two men who died also worked at Brentwood, Walks said. Describing one fatality he said, "We do not have a confirmation" but added initial blood culture results indicated bacteria, possibly related to anthrax, and more definitive test results were pending.
On the second death, Walks said there had not yet been any blood culture test results but that the man, who arrived at Southern Maryland Hospital Monday morning and died a short time later, had exhibited a clinical track that was highly suspicious for anthrax infection.
Walks urged postal workers at Brentwood to come in for anthrax testing.
"Anyone who was working in that back postal area in the last 11 days, you must immediately come to DC general to receive medication and be evaluated ...If you are feeling ill go to the nearest medical facility to be evaluated," Walks said.
When asked Monday during a news conference why there was a delay in testing after an anthrax contaminated envelope was found in Daschle's office, Debbie Willhite, of the U.S. Postal Service, said, "We had been advised there was no immediate need for us to do any testing ...there was no way that anthrax would present itself out of a sealed envelope,"
There also are nine of cases under investigation for possible infection. D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams, in an interview on CNN Monday, said a central reporting system for patients with anthrax-like symptoms was set up through the District's public health system and that is how the additional possible cases came to light.
House and Senate office buildings remained closed Monday as anthrax inspections continued but the Capitol was open for legislative business. Anthrax was found in Daschle's personal district office in the Senate Hart Office Building, in the Hart mailroom, the mailroom of the House Ford Office Building and the Brentwood postal site.
"We are taking this one day at a time," Capitol Police Lt. Dan Nichols told reporters Sunday, adding the office buildings would remain closed until "definitive" scientific evidence showed no signs of anthrax.
Williams said the Brentwood sorting office and the airmail center near Baltimore-Washington International Airport remained closed Monday while security sweeps for anthrax were made. Thousands of people who work in the congressional office buildings near the U.S. Capitol have been tested for anthrax exposure.
Investigators in New York are checking into two letters sent to the New York Post, which Sunday reported a second letter containing anthrax had been found at its offices. Post Editorial Page Assistant Johanna Huden tested positive for cutaneous anthrax on Friday.
Cutaneous anthrax infections have occurred at CBS, NBC and ABC news networks as well.
U.S. Surgeon-General David Satcher said on Sunday the strains of anthrax studied so far were very similar, suggesting, but not guaranteeing, they came from a single source.
On the New Jersey end of the anthrax investigation, spores have been found at the main Trenton post office in Hamilton, according to the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services. Preliminary tests on 13 of 23 samples collected by the FBI were positive for anthrax. So far, no anthrax has been found in cultures made from 19 samples collected at a branch post office in West Trenton.
There are at least two confirmed cases of cutaneous anthrax among New Jersey postal workers, one from the Hamilton facility and the other in West Trenton. The skin form of the infection also is suspected in a third postal worker. Investigators believe the Hamilton site was where anthrax-tainted letters sent to Daschle, the New York Post and NBC were mailed.
New Jersey health officials said they expect cleanup to begin in Hamilton branch office after more sampling is done. The state has tested 22 samples of material taken from public areas of the facility and has found no sign of anthrax.
"Our number one goal is to protect the safety of all workers and then to get the facilities fully up and running -- but only when all environmental tests are negative after the clean-up work is done," said Dr. Eddy Bresnitz, the department's senior assistant commissioner.
In all, at least 10 people have been diagnosed with anthrax infection -- in New York, Boca Rotan, Fla., Washington, D.C. and Trenton, N.J. Four -- two in Florida and now two in Washington -- have come down with the more deadly inhaled form, while the rest have the type that is contracted through cuts or abrasions on the skin. Robert Stevens, 63, the photo editor for American Media's Sun tabloid in Boca Raton, Fla., died of inhaled anthrax infection Oct. 5 and remains the only confirmed anthrax fatality. His co-worker, Ernesto Blanco, 73, was hospitalized with a respiratory illness that later was determined to be anthrax infection. He is expected to recover. The two Washington postal workers are the third and fourth inhaled anthrax cases. Some three dozen additional people have been exposed to anthrax but have not developed an infection.
(With additional reporting by Frances Burns in Trenton, N.J.)
