Wed, Oct 31, 2001 page4

• More spores found, 15th victim diagnosed

  ANTHRAX INFECTION A postal worker in New Jersey infected with the bacteria is recovering in hospital as President Bush urges all Americans to remain on alert

  • AP
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  A New Jersey woman became the nation's 15th confirmed anthrax victim, and spores turned up in at least three additional government buildings in a slow, steady spread of bioterrorism.

  "We believe that the country must stay on the alert, that our enemies still hate us," President George W. Bush said Monday.

  Three weeks into a new age of anthrax, experts puzzled over an unexplained substance found among spores in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle.

  Bush's warning was underscored by a formal terrorist threat advisory issued late in the day to law enforcement agencies nationwide. Attorney General John Ashcroft said officials had credible evidence of a possible attack over the coming week, but he added, "Unfortunately, it does not contain specific information as to the type of the attack or specific targets."

  Neither Ashcroft nor FBI Director Robert Mueller offered any indication whether the new threat relates to bioterrorism as opposed to an attack along the lines of the Sept. 11 suicide hijackings that killed 5,000 in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

  In New Jersey, officials announced the 15th diagnosis of anthrax in the nation since early this month, the first involving an individual with no apparent connection either to the mail service or the media.

  The woman, whose name was not disclosed, has been treated successfully for the skin form of the disease and released from the hospital, according to authorities. Officials said she works at a business near the Trenton-area Hamilton Township mail processing center, which is shut down because of the discovery of anthrax contamination. The facility processed anthrax-laced letters sent to Daschle as well as NBC news anchor Tom Brokaw and the New York Post.

  The woman developed a lesion on her forehead Oct. 17, and a skin test was taken a week later, officials said. The woman left the hospital on Sunday, one day before biopsy results were returned that showed she had had anthrax.

  Late Monday night, New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani announced that a 61-year-old stockroom worker at a Manhattan hospital had tested positive in preliminary tests for inhalation anthrax. She was in "very, very serious" condition and on a respirator, Giuliani said.

  Administration officials sought to reassure the public that mail was safe. But the New York Area Postal Union filed suit trying to force the closure of a vast processing and distribution center where traces of anthrax were found on four machines. The Postal Service has sealed off the machines and says the rest of the building is safe.

  Even before Ashcroft and Mueller issued their warning, there was less reassuring news from the investigation into the nation's unprecedented struggle against bioterrorism.

  Thus far in an intensive probe, said Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge, "there are a lot of theories out there; we just need some facts to turn a theory into a reality."

  In all, three people have died and an additional 12 have been confirmed ill with anthrax in the nation's worst experience with bioterrorism.

  Among the 15, seven involve skin anthrax and the remaining eight -- including all three deaths -- the more dangerous inhalation form of the disease.

  The number of contaminated locations continued to grow. The Supreme Court, State Department and a third government office building that houses the Voice of America and Food and Drug Administration were added to the list, evidence of contamination found in mailrooms in each structure.

  That followed the disclosure on Sunday that a small amount of anthrax had been found in the Justice Department's main building. The Department of Agriculture closed the mailroom in its downtown Economic Research Service office after a trace number of anthrax spores were confirmed there.

  Congress, too, struggled to be rid of the bacteria. Officials awaited final test results from the Longworth House Building, where contamination was reported Friday night in three lawmakers' offices on upper floors.

  Senate officials have scouted a downtown Washington hotel as an alternate site in the event of future disruptions, several sources said.

  In the Senate, lawmakers announced plans to use a chlorine gas to kill anthrax bacteria in the Hart Senate office building, a process that will span more than two weeks. Fifty senators have their offices in the very same building.

  The building houses Daschle's office, the suite where anthrax was discovered two weeks ago in a letter postmarked in Trenton, New Jersey.

  Authorities have said repeatedly that the anthrax found in that letter was more dangerous than spores found in two other tainted letters sent to Brokaw and the New York Post.

  At a White House briefing, Major General John Parker told reporters that silica had been found in the sample taken from the Daschle letter.

  "We don't know what that motive would be or why it would be there or anything," said Parker, who heads the Army's Fort Detrick laboratory.

  Parker said there was no evidence in the samples of bentonite, a substance that could make anthrax less inclined to clump together, and thus be more apt to be inhaled into the lungs.

  Asked whether there was any substance other than bentonite able to make anthrax more airborne, he said, "not to my knowledge."

  Silica, or silicon dioxide, is found in nature as sand or quartz or flint. A colorless, tasteless crystal, it is commonly used as a drying agent in drugs and in food production and helps control caking or clumping in powered products.

  The Supreme Court justices arranged last week to hold Monday's sessions in a courtroom a few blocks distant from their building., This action comes following the discovery of anthrax in a remote mail facility that processes mail destined for the Supreme Court.
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