Sunday November 4 7:02 PM ET

Medical Workers Vaccinated Against Smallpox

By Brian Williams

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States, fearful of a bioterrorism attack similar to the anthrax scare sweeping the country, said on Sunday key front-line medical workers were being vaccinated against smallpox.

While stressing there were no present signs of a smallpox outbreak, officials for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said a crash training program was also under way to teach doctors and other health workers nationwide about a disease eradicated throughout the world in 1981.

The smallpox precautions briefly took the spotlight off anthrax contamination that has killed four people since it first surfaced a month ago in Florida.

``We have been, for several years, trying to upgrade our capabilities for bioterrorism and those of state and local health departments,'' CDC Director Jeffrey Koplan said.

``However, since September 11, we've certainly accelerated that,'' Koplan told CNN's Late Edition.

``We have increased the number of people we have who are capable, trained and ready to go out to investigate smallpox outbreaks should they occur.''

CDC officials said dozens of medical workers were receiving smallpox vaccinations.

The New York Times put the number at about 140.

Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci said those being vaccinated were people who would be called on to go into action at the first sign of a smallpox outbreak.

``You vaccinate what we call the first responders, the people that are going to have to go out into the field, do the examination, do the isolation, do the quarantine. You've got to get them vaccinated,'' Fauci told Face the Nation on CBS.

``We must be prepared for the use of smallpox as a bioterrorism weapon,'' Fauci added.

The smallpox virus, a highly infectious disease characterized by a rash and high fever, is known to exist only in laboratories in the United States and Russia.

But intelligence services suspect some other nations including Iraq and North Korea may also have stocks.

Asked if there were plans for a wider vaccination against smallpox, Koplan replied: ``Not at this time. Our intention and the Department of Health and Human Services' intention is to have enough vaccine available so, should we need to use it, anyone who would need it could get it.''

ANTHRAX CROSS-CONTAMINATION

On the anthrax front, two new sites of contamination showed up but it appeared they were both cases of cross-contamination and there were no new reports of infection .

In New York, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said on Sunday a tape sent by NBC news anchor Tom Brokaw's office to City Hall had come back positive in preliminary tests for anthrax.

Giuliani told reporters an aide, Tony Carbonetti, had handled the tape and after news broke last month about Brokaw's assistant having contracted anthrax the tape was sent for testing.

``Tony handled the tape ... and they sent it off for testing several times and it came back as positive,'' Giuliani said.

Officials said the positive test was likely a case of cross-contamination as the tape picked up spores from NBC's offices and was then sent, unwittingly, to City Hall.

Environmental tests at City Hall have come back negative, and no one there has tested positive for anthrax so far.

In Washington, five mail workers were put on antibiotics at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center after anthrax was found in the mailroom there.

Fauci said it was ``extremely unlikely'' any of the 200 patients at the medical center could pick up the bacteria as long as it was contained to the mailroom.

The hospital receives its mail from Washington's Brentwood facility, where two postal workers died from inhaled anthrax last month.

In another Washington case, conclusive results of anthrax tests on a suspicious package found in a private car in the Washington suburb of Bethesda, Maryland, were not expected until Tuesday.

The number of confirmed anthrax cases in the United States has reached 17, of which seven have been skin anthrax and 10 have been the more serious inhaled type. Four of the people infected with inhaled anthrax have died.

Baffled U.S. investigators have said that despite more than 1,000 leads, they are no closer to finding out who is responsible for the deadly mail assault that started after the Sept. 11 plane attack on the United States.

Deputy Postmaster General John Nolan told CNN's Late Edition that of 30 billion pieces of mail delivered since Sept. 11, three pieces of mail have been confirmed to have anthrax.

-- Anonymous, November 04, 2001