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While anthrax questions remain, some normalcy returns to Washington, justices back at Supreme Court
Friday, Nov. 2, 2001
 
• Anthrax Primer
• Testing for Anthrax
• Anthrax: Quick Facts
By LAURA MECKLER
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON – Investigators have found anthrax in the office mailbox of a New Jersey woman with skin anthrax, suggesting she was exposed through the mail like other victims, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson told The Associated Press on Friday.

The overall investigation was stalled, though, with authorities saying they have no firm evidence to lead them to the perpetrators. "We are doing everything we can to get all the facts," President Bush said, appealing to the public for help.

Federal officials also officially confirmed the 17th case of anthrax infection, a New York Post worker who had already been diagnosed by local authorities, Thompson said. Overseas, officials in Pakistan, Germany and India said early environmental tests came back positive for anthrax.

In New Jersey, investigators have found traces of anthrax in the mailbox of the 51-year-old accountant whose case had puzzled them because she had no apparent connection to the mail, Thompson said in AP interview.

"It's a good sign," he said, because it suggests she contracted the highly curable form of infection through her mail. "We have not conclusively ruled that's where she got it from, but it's a good indication."

With cleanup under way on Capitol Hill and justices returning to a decontaminated Supreme Court, Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge told a White House briefing that the high-state of alert issued by the federal government on Monday would remain in place indefinitely.

"We have not precluded any possibility," said Ridge said. "We enlist American, citizens, to help us."

Later, Bush said: "We're in a new day here in America. We're fighting a two-front war. I believe most Americans understand that now."

"We're learning a lot about anthrax and we're doing everything we can to get all the facts," Bush added. "I believe the hard work of our public health officials has saved lives."

Almost a month into the anthrax mystery, officials said they had little to go on and could not say whether the plot originated at home or abroad.

"The current investigation puts us at mailboxes in Trenton, where the three critical letters were mailed," FBI Director Robert Mueller said. He referred to anthrax-laden letters, postmarked Trenton, N.J., that went to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, NBC and the New York newspaper.

Four people have died from inhalation anthrax and six more are infected with the most lethal form of the disease.

Mueller said he was disappointed in the public response to the offer of a $1 million reward for information leading to the arrest of suspects.

"We had hoped that the $1 million reward would encourage many more citizens to help. We have not received as many tips or leads as we would like," he said.

"It is still too early to draw any conclusions," in the probe, Mueller said. He said that the American public could be "an important set of eyes and ears."

The federal officials said they had little to add to warnings that four California bridges, including San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, might be terrorist targets.

In Pakistan, the nation's largest newspaper evacuated some of its offices Friday after a letter received last week tested positive for anthrax. In India, preliminary tests were positive on a powder found in an envelope in a government office. In Germany, tests came back positive in three spots – a letter delivered to an employment office and on two packages found elsewhere.

But in Washington, where anthrax has killed two people, city health authorities suggested the worst was over.

In New York, dozens of disease specialists searched for clues to explain how a 61-year-old hospital worker, Kathy T. Nguyen, was exposed to anthrax. Nguyen was too sick to talk before she died, and she lived alone with no close family to help retrace her steps.

So far there is no evidence she was exposed through the mail, as other victims were, said Dr. Julie Gerberding of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Investigators know that the bacteria that killed Nguyen were "indistinguishable from all the others," including the strain in a letter to Daschle, D-S.D., said Dr. Steven Ostroff of the CDC, who is leading the New York probe.

That could mean anthrax aimed at someone else mixed with other letters in the mail and wound up infecting her, said one expert, Dr. Eric Rackow, chief medical officer at New York University Medical Center. "This may still be related to the original batch of letters," Rackow said.

On Capitol Hill, an intense cleanup was under way in the Hart building, where the Daschle letter was opened. Workers were sealing doors and windows as they prepared to fill the nine-story building with a killing gas. Chlorine dioxide is expected to kill everything it touches – mice, rats, roaches, anthrax spores.

Supreme Court justices and some of the other 400 people who work in the court building returned to their offices Friday. The court building remained closed to the public as it has been since a small amount of anthrax was found in the basement mailroom.

Environmental tests continued finding anthrax in government mail rooms. On Thursday, four Food and Drug Administration mailrooms in suburban Maryland joined a growing list of infected sites. In Florida, a sixth post office tested positive.

More than 170 area postal workers in the Kansas City area were taking antibiotics after anthrax was detected in the Stamp Fulfillment Center. A private mail maintenance center in Indianapolis remained closed for cleaning after anthrax spores were found there on a piece of postal equipment sent from a contaminated mail processing center in Trenton.

Of the 17 cases of anthrax, 10 were of the inhalation type – including four fatalities – and seven of the less dangerous skin variety.

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On the Net:

Web site of Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., who has posted much information on the anthrax puzzle: http://frist.senate.gov
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