Stolen from TB2K

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/artic...1221EST0616.DTL

Officials find positive environmental sample for anthrax in Connecticut case

LAURA MECKLER, Associated Press Writer Friday, November 30, 2001

(11-30) 10:26 PST WASHINGTON (AP) --

Health investigators searching for the source of the anthrax that killed a 94-year-old Connecticut woman have found the deadly bacteria on a letter that passed through her local mail facility, an official close to the probe said Friday.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the letter was not addressed to the woman, but may have touched some of her mail. He added that it appeared to be a case of cross contamination within the mail system, rather than another letter that had anthrax in it when it was mailed.

Some mail destined for Connecticut traveled through the New Jersey facility that handled the anthrax-packed letters mailed to Sens. Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy.

Cross-contamination in the mail is believed responsible for the skin anthrax infection of a New Jersey accountant. If this source of infection is confirmed, this would be the first case of the much more serious inhalation form of the disease traced to contamination of the mail.

Investigators with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Connecticut health department have taken dozens of environmental samples from places where Ottilie Lundgren visited in the two months before she was infected with inhalation anthrax.

The presence of anthrax in any of those places could help explain how and where she was exposed.

Among the places tested: Lundgren's mail, her mailbox, her neighbor's mail, area post offices, her church, doctor's office, beauty shop and other businesses that she visited. Until now, all the tests for anthrax had come back negative, but on Thursday officials cautioned that some results were still pending.

"While we have done many environmental tests, we are certainly not finished. And there are several tests that are pending, and we continue to look into any possible place where this woman had been in the 60 days before she became ill," Dr. David Swerdlow, who is coordinating the Connecticut investigation for the CDC, told reporters Thursday.

"This remains a very active investigation," added Dr. Stephen Ostroff of the CDC.

Investigators were also looking for any similarities to the case of a 61-year-old New York woman who also died from inhaling anthrax and whose exposure also has baffled authorities. Both women lived alone and spent a lot of time by themselves, although one lived in rural Connecticut and the other in the nation's largest city. In the New York case, puzzled investigators have yet to report any positive environmental samples.

In Washington, the Bush administration said it was sticking by its $1.5 billion request for bioterrorism preparation, even as its top health officials and key senators suggested twice that much was needed.

Bioterrorism must compete with other funding priorities, meaning everything cannot be paid for in the coming year, said Bill Pierce, spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services. "You have to deal with the real world here," Pierce said Thursday, promising more money in future years.

Dr. Jeffrey Koplan, director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was asked at a Senate hearing how much money was needed this year, and he listed needs totaling $3 billion.

For instance, while President Bush has asked for about a half-billion dollars to buy smallpox vaccine, Koplan said even more -- $600 million to $700 million -- was needed to help local and state officials store it and learn how to use it properly.

Other needs include stockpiling antibiotics, upgrading state and local health departments and improving lab security.

Pierce said Koplan was simply offering his "wish list." But several lawmakers suggested the president would be shortchanging the problem if he didn't agree to much more substantial spending. "God help the American people if we have a biological attack and are not prepared, and God help the Congress if it is derelict in its duty," said Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa.

Specter and Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, are the top legislators on the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that funds health, and they want $4 billion for bioterrorism. Sens. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Bill Frist, R-Tenn., two of the Senate's leaders on health, have their own, $3.2 billion bioterrorism plan.

It wasn't clear how much money Congress eventually would approve, but in the midst of the anthrax attacks and their aftermath, it is sure to be more than the nation has ever spent on bioterrorism.

Also on Capitol Hill, authorities were set to begin a first-of-its-kind fumigation of part of the Hart Senate Office Building, where an anthrax-packed letter to Daschle, the Senate majority leader, was opened last month.

Beginning Friday, they planned to fill Daschle's office with chlorine dioxide gas, while carefully monitoring the air around it to ensure that none of the deadly chemical escapes.

On the Net:

CDC bioterrorism page: www.bt.cdc.gov/

-- Anonymous, November 30, 2001

Answers

And people are still telling me I'm paranoid for not wanting to send or receive Christmas cards this year.

-- Anonymous, November 30, 2001

We are being watchful at work, dear, really.

I think we're safe for now until another letter shows up. And if it does it will very likely be found in the facility and so will not be delivered, along with any other mail present.

-- Anonymous, December 01, 2001

This year, instead of sending Christmas cards, I plan to make alot of phone calls. I can catch up on the news with them and hear their voices. Calling my aunt, who has a wonderful English accent...will be music to my ears.

-- Anonymous, December 01, 2001

I am sending cards as usual. If anything looks suspicious, I shall forward it to Barefoot. (Snort!)

-- Anonymous, December 01, 2001

I shall assume that you meant your local Barefoot.

LOL

-- Anonymous, December 01, 2001

You know what they say about assuming. . . LOLOLOL! Got masks and gloves?

-- Anonymous, December 01, 2001

I use the gloves, but not the masks. The masks are too bothersome.

Besides, they say in the directions that you are supposed to store them in a bag when you aren't using them, but bags are not provided.

Basically, I get it or I don't. At least I don't work in Washington DC or NJ.

The gloves show just how dirty the mail really is, and my hands actually feel better, not dry and cracked. [sounds like a palmolive commercial. "You're soaking in it." LOL]

-- Anonymous, December 01, 2001

Sending Christmas cards isn't a bad thing for me: I'll save around $35 in postage, and, with luck, I'll get dropped from tons of Christmas lists.

I used to be able to get away with sending a dozen or so cards. I'd really like to get back to that without hurting the feelings of those who make a Huge Deal out of Christmas.

Sad story. I know one lady who used to spend 9 or 10 hours a day from about October on making crafts, baking, decorating, and otherwise preparing for Christmas. Last year, her husband was let go and had to take a job that only paid a quarter of his former salary. This year, she works a full-time job as a cashier and accepts overtime at another store so that they can afford to keep their medical insurance (something like $380 is coming out of their pockets). Her greatest wish is to have two days off in a row and energy to put up the tree.

-- Anonymous, December 01, 2001

We have friends in many states and countries and it's just not practical (or financially feasible) to phone everyone. Also, a good precentage of them are older folks and don't have computers so e-mail isn't an option either. Cards are the cheapest alternative. (I bought all of mine from Grannie's, where Kim (the owner) had partially used packs she had collected over several years--they're mostly very funny kitty cards. I also got nice Christmas bags from there (1/4 store price) in which I'll put the goodies I already bought for the vet, my doc, the cops, firefighters and EMTs. Oh and our local Barefoot and the garbage guys. Of course, I bought the goodies at Big Lots so they didn't cost that much. I consider it cheap insurance, lol. The firefighters know to go for the cats and forget the household goods; the garbage guys don't leave my cans on their side; and the Barefoot takes parcels over a pound from the mailbox, tee hee. I also put a blue bulb in a candle light in the window--the cops love that.

-- Anonymous, December 01, 2001