LETTER TO RENO, NEVADA COMPANY MAY HAVE ANTHRAX 10-12-2001

Letter to Reno, Nevada company may have anthrax

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Friday October 12, 8:29 pm Eastern Time

CARSON CITY, Nev., Oct 12 (Reuters) - A Reno company received a suspicious letter that tested ``presumptively'' positive for anthrax bacteria and further tests were being conducted, Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn said on Friday.

``As of 3 p.m. PDT (6 p.m. EDT/2000 GMT) today contents of the letter had tested presumptively positive for anthrax,'' Guinn said in a statement.

Guinn did not identify the company that had received the letter, but CNN reported that it was Microsoft Licensing, a unit of software giant Microsoft (NasdaqNM:MSFT - news).

Employees at the Reno firm could not be reached and a spokesman for Microsoft said he could not comment.

Frank Siracusa, director of the Nevada's division of emergency management, said the employees who had come in contact with the letter were not believed affected.

``As far as I know nobody has been quarantined,'' Siracusa said. ``There were probably a couple folks who were routinely tested. The way this came about it was not felt that much a threat could really get airborne.''

Siracusa said three different tests are required to establish the particular strain of anthrax bacteria suspected and so far only one had been conducted.

``This is not by any means 100 percent positive,'' he said.

He declined to discuss details of the case but said the possible anthrax was found in a ``stain,'' not a powdery form, and that it wasn't considered a threat.

``This is not in any type of powder format that could be easily inhaled into anybody's lungs,'' Siracusa said. ``I don't think its a real panic situation from the information I have.''

The news came as New York officials announced an NBC TV employee became the fourth person to be infected with anthrax in the past week in the United States. There were three cases at a tabloid newspaper publishing company in Florida, one of which was fatal.