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Second skin anthrax likely found at NBC
Thursday, Oct. 25, 2001
 
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By STEPHANIE GASKELL
Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK — City officials said Thursday that a probable case of skin anthrax has been found at NBC, stemming from the same letter that is believed to have infected an assistant to news anchor Tom Brokaw.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has investigated the matter since Oct. 12, classified the case as ``suspicious or probable,'' the city Health Department said.

Health Commissioner Neal Cohen said the diagnosis was complicated because the NBC employee had been on antibiotics before a biopsy and the skin test came up negative for anthrax.

But a blood sample, the female employee's symptoms and the fact that she had handled the letter persuaded officials to classify the case as probable. The letter from Trenton, N.J., postmarked Sept. 18, contained threatening language, including ``Death to America.''

``The bottom line is the woman is fine,'' said Kassie Canter, an NBC spokeswoman.

Four other cases of cutaneous anthrax have been reported in New York, all linked to news outlets. Another suspected case involves an employee at the New York Post, where a worker contracted skin anthrax.

Anthrax-contaminated letters found at media outlets recently passed through the city's mail system, which handles about 20 million pieces of mail a day. No postal employees have tested positive for anthrax in New York, but two have died of the inhaled form of the disease in Washington, D.C.

The Postal Service is offering the antibiotic Cipro to the 7,000 employees at six postal facilities in New York. On Wednesday night and Thursday, hundreds of nervous mail handlers lined up in a post office basement to pick up 10-day supplies of the drug.

Many workers were unsure whether they would use it.

``I'm going to see my doctor first,'' postal worker, William Stephens said.

Employee participation in the Cipro program is voluntary, the postal service said.

The fear of anthrax persuaded many postal employees, including clerk Karen Nichson, to take Cipro.

``I'm afraid not to take it,'' she said.

Four machines at the sprawling processing and distribution center on Ninth Avenue several blocks from Madison Square Garden had been cordoned off after tests showed there was some bacterial contamination, William Smith, president of the New York City Postal Workers Union, said Wednesday.

Postal service spokesman Dan Quinn said Thursday the machines tested positive for ``some kind of bacteria,'' though not necessarily anthrax. He said more specific results were being sought.

Smith wants the Postal Service test all workers, rather than hand out medicine as a precaution.

``The workers should be tested and then wait until the results come back,'' he said. ``If the results are positive, they should be treated.''

At the Post, officials said a mailroom employee came forward Wednesday with symptoms, including a sore, that were consistent with skin anthrax.

The male employee was taken to a hospital and a biopsy was being taken from the sore and tested for anthrax, the Post said. He was being treated with antibiotics and was expected to make a full recovery. The source of the anthrax had not been identified.

Last week, Johanna Huden, an assistant on the newspaper's editorial page, tested positive for skin anthrax. An anthrax-contaminated letter was found, unopened, in the Post mailroom.

``This is next. Take penacilin now,'' the letter said, with penicillin misspelled. ``Death to America. Death to Israel. Allah is great.''

The letter used block letters similar to those on letters sent to Brokaw and Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle in Washington.

The mailroom employee with the suspected anthrax case was one of 10 people at the Post identified as possibly having come in contact with the letter, the newspaper said. All 10 had been put on antibiotics on Sunday. None of the other nine was reporting symptoms.

The other New York cases were at CBS and ABC.

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