^^^11 AM ET^^^ INHALED ANTHRAX - Breaking, DC postal worker has NT

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nt

-- Anonymous, October 21, 2001

Answers

@#$%!!!!!

-- Anonymous, October 21, 2001

My sentiments precisely. Well, approximately, anyway. Just saw a poll, Fox, I think, says over 50% are either Very or Somewhat Worried that a bunch of people are going to die in a biochem attack. I think that percentage has just increased a tad.

-- Anonymous, October 21, 2001

LASun

Today: October 21, 2001 at 9:00:22 PDT

DC Postal Worker Has Inhaled Anthrax

WASHINGTON- A capital postal worker has been diagnosed with inhalation anthrax, the third person to come down with the most serious form of the disease.

The unidentified man checked into a suburban hospital on Friday and was diagnosed Sunday morning, said Dr. Ivan Walks, chief health officer for the city.

"Right now he's clinically stable and being treated," he said.

The man checked into a Fairfax, Va., hospital with flu-like symptoms that were suspicious of anthrax. The diagnosis was made Sunday morning, Walks said.

The patient works at the city's central mail handling facility, which processed an anthrax-tainted letter sent to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle. It was not known whether the worker was exposed to the bacteria from that letter.

The man is the ninth person to be diagnosed with anthrax since a Florida man died early this month. Six of the victims have been exposed through the skin, a less serious form of the disease.

The latest patient was exposed through his respiratory system, a much more serious form of the disease. But he is being treated with antibiotics and is expected to make a full recovery, Walks said.

Dan Mahalko, a U.S. Postal Inspection Service official in Washington, said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began testing employees at the Brentwood facility's government mail section for possible anthrax exposure a few days ago.

He said the CDC also ran tests on the mail machinery.

Sen. Bill Frist, a doctor before he joining the Senate, said the victim faces a more uncertain future than those who were exposed through the skin. The only person to die from anthrax during this scare had the inhalation form of the disease, though it was not caught as early.

"It's tragic news," said Frist, R-Tenn., on CBS's "Face the Nation." "On the other hand, hopefully it's been diagnosed at a time where even with inhalation ... it can be treated. It's not obviously as certain as the cutaneous (skin) or other sort of exposure instances are."

Frist added that this man must have been exposed to a more intense form of the bacterium, strong enough to move through is respiratory track and deep into his lungs.

"Obviously when that postal worker touched it, it was in a more concentrated, virile form,"

Frist said. The senator offered a possible scenario for exposure: "As the postal machinery and sometimes the workers compress it, the anthrax then can come out. Most of the envelopes were sealed all around, and the theory is that it came out in a burst of air and that's how it's inhaled."

On Saturday, the anthrax threat widened as health inspectors found the potentially deadly bacteria in a mail bundling machine in a House office building just a few blocks from the Capitol.

The swab of the machine was taken Wednesday, confirmed Saturday and marked the first time traces of anthrax have been found on the House side of Capitol Hill.

Members of Congress are wondering where else anthrax might linger.

"Now, you got to look at, well, where did that mail go from there?" asked Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., on ABC's "This Week." "We're dealing with a new situation. We're trying to deal with it rationally."

House leaders decided to adjourn after the anthrax was discovered in the Senate to allow for a thorough check of House buildings - a move that brought a barrage of criticism as the Senate stayed in session.

"Now they appear to be vindicated with that decision," Lott said.

Hazardous materials teams have worked their way across Capitol Hill since anthrax was discovered in a letter delivered to the office of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D.

In New Jersey, federal agents retraced a postal route, searching for the mailbox in which someone may have deposited letters laced with anthrax.

Investigators focused their work on Trenton, N.J., where the letters to Daschle and NBC News anchorman Tom Brokaw were mailed. More than 150 FBI agents and postal inspectors were on the scene.

-- Anonymous, October 21, 2001


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