Anthrax fears shake world
Back to the Anthrax Spread by Terrorists Page
Monday, 15 October, 2001, 23:09 GMT 00:09 UK
In some cities, postal workers have donned masks
Confirmed cases of anthrax in the United States have sparked panic across an already jittery world, and encouraged hoaxers to make the most of mounting insecurity.From Brussels to Bangkok, citizens have been warned to look out for suspicious packages or envelopes possibly containing the deadly substance, which has already claimed one life in the United States.
On Monday, the scare spread into the upper political echelons when a letter opened in the office of US Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle was discovered to contain anthrax.
German authorities meanwhile were testing a white powder found in the office post room of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who has wholeheartedly backed the US strikes on Afghanistan. But officials say they are expecting a false alarm.
In France, police evacuated hundreds of people and sent dozens off for medical tests after suspect powder was sent to addresses which included the French Space Agency and the College de France, a research institute.
In Switzerland, an employee at the Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis is receiving precautionary medical treatment after he received a "suspicious letter" containing an unidentified powder.
There have also been other scares within the Americas.
The Argentine news agency Telam reported that at least a dozen people were hospitalised with eye irritation and respiratory complaints when white powder was found during the counting at polling stations in Buenos Aires province.
And in Canada, a section of the parliament building was evacuated and 35 employees rushed to a decontamination unit after an envelope containing powder was found.
'Practical jokers'
But it appears that white powder has been providing hoaxers with ample opportunity for bluffs.
In Australia, more than a dozen buildings - including US and British consulates - were evacuated in scares which now appear to be hoaxes.
Two dozen people underwent decontamination.
At the Vienna international airport in Austria there was another false alarm when a powder was discovered at an information desk.
The terminal was evacuated while the substance was analysed in a laboratory.
Six letters in Israel have been sent to laboratories, and sent back again after they tested negative.
But no sooner had they been returned, unidentified powder suspected to contain anthrax spores was found on an Israeli cargo plane.
In Belgium the authorities have already started drawing up tougher laws against hoaxers after a series of envelopes containing harmless white powder were delivered to various buildings, including private homes and banks.
"These practical jokers should know that they are going to face jail sentences," said Deputy Prime Minister Laurette Onkelinkx.
Heightened security
Despite the rash of false alarms, citizens are being told to keep their eyes open.
Security has been stepped up across Asia.
In Hong Kong the authorities have warned people to look out for suspicious letters or parcels, and not to open anything from obscure sources. Meanwhile in China checks have been ordered on suspicious mail.
Japan has tightened postal checks and urged its citizens to report all suspicious mail to the police.
Post offices are using x-ray machines to screen all international mail and parcels that have no return address, and at the central post office in Tokyo, workers have started wearing masks.
In South Korea all major public and private facilities in the capital - such as subway stations, cinemas, department stores - have been asked to hold at least one drill by November. They have been told to stock up on gas masks.
In Thailand and the Philippines, people have been advised to inspect their post carefully for stains or powder marks before opening.
Meanwhile, the Malaysian Government has said it will co-operate fully with US investigations into a letter bearing a Malaysian postmark, containing anthrax, which was sent to an office of software giant Microsoft in Reno, Nevada.
But Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said he was still waiting for the US to display the evidence.
"They don't give us any information," he said. "Once we get the information, we will investigate."
NBC Anchor Says He May Have Been Exposed to Anthrax
Monday October 15 9:23 AM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - NBC television nightly news anchor Tom Brokaw said Monday he might have handled hate mail containing anthrax, which has already afflicted his assistant and possibly another NBC employee.
``I actually saw it (the letter) and I think I even picked it up at one point and so I may have been exposed. I'm not sure but I'm confident that cipro is going to get me through this,'' said Brokaw, shaking a bottle of antibiotics.
Hundreds of people have been tested across America for anthrax. People in three states have been exposed to the bacteria. The targets were NBC in New York, a supermarket tabloid newspaper company in Florida and a Microsoft Corp. office in Nevada.
U.S. officials say terrorists sent the bacteria in the U.S. mail, but have not linked the letters to the Sept. 11 hijack assaults on America.
Brokaw said his assistant was recovering physically but that it was an emotional time for her and her family.
``There is a lot of emotion in the family and I think, some anger, probably,'' he told NBC's ``Today'' show.
Brokaw said a second NBC employee who came into contact with the contaminated letter had shown possible anthrax symptoms but that she was also recovering well.
Initially, investigators believed a letter containing white powdery material, sent from St. Petersburg, Florida, contained the bacteria. However, the source of the anthrax was later found to be letter containing a brown, granular material.
That letter, said Brokaw, sat around for about a week along with a pile of other hate mail addressed to the news anchor, before it was finally tested last Friday. Brokaw was informed Saturday that the letter had tested positive for anthrax.
``I will never, ever again take mail casually. I saw this letter, read it, and one of the reasons I noticed it was that there was a misspelled word in it,'' said the anchorman.
``We have been immune to this over the years. That immunity has come to an end.''
Brokaw declined to say where the letter was post-marked. ''It's impossible for me to know where it came from. I don't, in my gut, think it's random. I just don't,'' he said.
More than 500 people at NBC have been tested for anthrax.
``I don't diminish the fact that there has been both emotional and psychological scarring that has gone on here and we are going to have to work to heal those,'' said Brokaw.
OFFICIALS SAY DON'T PANIC
Health authorities took to morning television shows on Monday to appeal to people not to panic over anthrax.
``We know from experience with anthrax, that it doesn't widely disperse itself,'' said Stephen Ostroff, chief epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta.
``And in all of the current situations that we're aware of, it's really mostly been confined to people who've had direct contact with these contaminated envelopes,'' Ostroff told ABC's ''Good Morning America'' program.
Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher urged the public not to rush out to get antibiotics as a preventive measure, saying it would do more harm than good.
``We would seriously discourage people from taking cipro unless, in fact, it is indicated, which means they have been exposed or think they have been exposed,'' Satcher told NBC.
``If that happens we are going to really use the best weapon we have for preventing the development of a serious anthrax disease,'' he added.
Copyright © 2001 Reuters Limited.
Child of ABC Employee Gets Anthrax
By Chaka Ferguson
Associated Press Writer
Monday, Oct. 15, 2001; 9:31 p.m. EDTNEW YORK –– The 7-month-old son of an ABC News producer has developed the skin form of anthrax after recently spending time in the newsroom, authorities and network officials said Monday.
The boy, the youngest victim in a growing number of anthrax cases across the country, is responding to antibiotics and is expected to recover, ABC News President David Westin said.
"The prognosis is excellent," he said.
It is the second case of anthrax involving a major news organization in New York in the past three days. Authorities are also investigating a letter that infected an NBC employee with the same form of anthrax last week; she is also expected to recover.
Authorities did not discuss the source of the germ involving the little boy. Westin said the network is operating under the assumption that the exposure happened at its offices on West 66th Street.
The child visited the ABC newsroom in the last few weeks, probably on Sept. 28, Westin said. He was hospitalized with an unknown ailment soon after the visit.
The boy was believed to have been on two floors of the ABC building for a couple of hours, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said. Westin said the child is the son of a female producer, but did not release names.
The anthrax is the type that is absorbed through cuts or scratches in the skin, not the more dangerous inhaled variety. Officials learned of the diagnosis Monday evening through blood tests and a biopsy, Westin said.
"There are no other instances that we are aware of," he said. "We will continue to report the news."
In the past three days, the nation's news organizations have tightened security, particularly in mailrooms. The Associated Press, across the street from NBC, temporarily closed its mailroom Friday, as did CBS.
ABC stopped internal mail delivery in New York and Washington to allow a security evaluation, while CNN said it had closed mailrooms in New York, Washington and Atlanta.
New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik said police will go to CNN, the AP, CBS and other media outlets in the city to make sure they are free of anthrax. Giuliani said there would be an environmental review "to make sure the premises and the area are safe."
© Copyright 2001 The Associated Press
The Washington Times
www.washtimes.comDaschle office receives anthrax
Dave Boyer
THE WASHINGTON TIMESPublished 10/16/2001
The bioterrorism scare across a jittery nation spread to Capitol Hill yesterday as an aide to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle opened an envelope that tested positive initially for anthrax.
Capitol Police Lt. Dan Nichols said the letter, which was opened by a female staffer in Mr. Daschle's personal office about 10:15 a.m., contained powder. Two preliminary field tests on the letter were positive for anthrax.
The letter to Mr. Daschle's office in the Hart Building was postmarked Sept. 18 from Trenton, N.J., the same city from which a letter bearing anthrax was mailed to NBC anchor Tom Brokaw.
Meanwhile yesterday, more cases of anthrax and exposure to its spores were reported to authorities.
Two persons came down with the disease — the 7-month-old son of an ABC News producer and a 73-year-old mailroom employee at a Florida supermarket tabloid who already had been diagnosed with exposure to the anthrax bacteria.
The boy had spent time in the ABC newsroom and was diagnosed with the less-dangerous type of anthrax, which is absorbed through cuts or scratches in the skin. In Florida, health officials confirmed that Ernesto Blanco had contracted the more-deadly inhaled form of anthrax. His co-worker, Bob Stevens, 63, a photographer, died from the disease.
Also yesterday, New Jersey postal officials said a mail carrier and post office maintenance employee in Trenton, where at least two anthrax-tainted letters were mailed, have shown symptoms of the disease. Authorities found traces of anthrax in the Boca Raton, Fla., post office, which handles mail for the tabloid newspaper, where an editor died Oct. 5 of the disease.
Capitol Police quarantined 40 employees in Mr. Daschle's office as doctors tested them with nasal swabs to determine if they were exposed to the potentially deadly bacteria. About 50 people, including police officers who responded without protective suits, were given the antibiotic Cipro as a precaution.
"There was an exposure when the letter was opened," Lt. Nichols said. "This is a criminal investigation."
Capitol Police halted mail delivery to Congress and stopped public tours of the Capitol.
"We have a public safety responsibility, not only to the congressional community, but to the visitors within the Capitol complex," Lt. Nichols said. "Given the current situation it was our decision that it would be in everyone's interest to suspend tours of the United States Capitol."
The envelope was sent to an Army medical research facility at Fort Detrick, Md., for more sophisticated tests. Those results were expected to be available sometime today.
As authorities donning contamination-proof biohazard suits combed his office, a grim-faced Mr. Daschle told reporters he was "very disappointed and angered" that his staff had become an apparent target.
"They are innocent people caught up in a matter for which they have nothing to do," said Mr. Daschle, South Dakota Democrat. "I feel so badly for each of them."
The staff of Sen. Frank H. Murkowski, Alaska Republican, also called Capitol Police yesterday after receiving a "strange" envelope without postage. Mr. Murkowski said officers responded quickly, but then had to wait for an overworked police specialist to examine the envelope's contents.
"We were advised we were twelfth on the list," Mr. Murkowski said, referring to reports of suspicious envelopes in other lawmakers' offices.
Said Lt. Nichols, "We've had a number of suspicious package calls today."
As the Senate convened yesterday afternoon, Chaplain Lloyd John Ogilvie prayed for divine protection.
"Protect the senators and all of us who work with or for them from the insidious threats of bioterrorism," he prayed. "Calm our nerves; replace panic with Your peace. We need You now, dear God."
In the House, Sergeant-at-Arms Bill Livingood issued a directive around noon for all House offices to cease opening mail and return unopened mail for screening.
"There's certainly enough anxiety to go around," said a House staffer. "There's a sense that it could have been anyone."
Nonetheless, emergency communications, disjointed in evacuations at the Capitol last month, were again uneven. Around 3 p.m., three hours after the House was ordered to return unopened mail, a Republican Senate staffer reported that his office was still opening mail.
Although word of the possible anthrax attack spread quickly on Capitol Hill, many lawmakers and aides reacted with resignation rather than alarm. The Capitol had been evacuated twice during the week of Sept. 11 and has beefed up perimeter security, even applying bomb-resistant coatings on windows.
"Nobody was really surprised," said a Senate aide. "It's sort of like, 'What's next — smallpox Wednesday?'"
Police and sergeants-at-arms had alerted congressional offices last week about the danger and the procedure for handling suspicious packages.
Federal investigators have not found evidence linking the anthrax cases to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Authorities said a female employee at the Trenton postal station and a male maintenance worker also were being tested for the anthrax bacteria. The post office is located in Hamilton Township, just outside of Trenton.
They said that there was no immediate concern on why it took nearly a month for both letters to be received and opened, based on their posting dates, considering the volume of mail received by NBC and by Mr. Daschle. But, authorities said, inquiries are being made by the FBI of several postal employees.
President Bush announced the discovery in Mr. Daschle's office, saying there may be a link between the anthrax cases and Islamic militant Osama bin Laden, whose al Qaeda terrorist network has been accused in the Sept. 11 attacks.
After Mr. Daschle's staff discovered the powder, they notified his chief of staff, Pete Rouse, who contacted Capitol Police and an attending physician at the Capitol, Dr. John Eisold.
Dr. Eisold sent a team to the office to isolate and decontaminate the staff member, and to administer antibiotics.
"They have been swabbed and they will be tested now to see if they indeed do have any of the spores," Dr. Eisold said. "I do not think any of the employees are in any danger."
The senator's staffers were allowed to go home late yesterday and were advised to wash thoroughly. The House and Senate will be in session today.
"We have to conduct our business here in the Congress and across this country, and we intend to do that," Mr. Daschle said.
• Jerry Seper contributed to this report, which is based in part on wire service reports.Copyright © 2001 News World Communications, Inc.
