Postal workers at Manhattan facility offered anthrax vaccine

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http://www.boston.com/dailynewsPostal workers at contaminated New York office offered anthrax vaccine

By Associated Press, 12/24/2001 23:02

NEW YORK (AP) The anthrax vaccine will be available this week to postal workers at the Manhattan facility where the killer bacteria were found, union leaders said, but they predicted few if any takers.

Traces of anthrax were discovered on five mail-sorting machines at the Morgan Processing and Distribution Center in October.

No New York postal workers have contracted anthrax, but mail that likely went through the Morgan center is blamed for several New York cases of skin anthrax, all of them non-lethal.

A city hospital worker died on Oct. 31 of inhalation anthrax, but officials haven't determined the source.

The U.S. Postal Service and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did not return calls for comment Monday.

Postal workers who were advised in October to take 60 days of antibiotics are now finishing their prescriptions. William Smith, president of the New York Metro Area Postal Union, said Monday that 2,500 workers out of 7,000 at the Morgan facility were on the 60-day treatment.

They now have the option of going off medication, getting 40 more days of antibiotics or taking additional antibiotics in conjunction with a vaccine, which will be offered beginning Thursday morning at the Morgan station, Smith said.

He said he knew of no New York City postal workers who wanted the vaccine.

The federal government is offering the vaccine to people who have been in anthrax-contaminated buildings.

The first shots were given to 48 Capitol Hill workers in Washington. On Saturday, shots were offered to more than 1,100 workers possibly exposed to anthrax at a tabloid publishing company in Florida; three people decided to take the vaccine.

-- Anonymous, December 25, 2001


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