Tabloid staffer exposed to anthrax returns to job

"You've got to go back and get going, I guess," says the woman, 36, who is taking antibiotics to ward off the disease.

©Associated Press

© St. Petersburg Times,
published October 12, 2001

BOCA RATON -- One of the three supermarket tabloid employees who were exposed to anthrax returned to work Thursday as investigators waited for test results that might help them find the source of the bacteria that killed one of her co-workers.

"I just want to say I'm fine," a smiling Stephanie Dailey told a crowd of reporters from her front yard in nearby Boynton Beach. "I'm taking medicine like everybody else."

Dailey, 36, said health officials used a swab to test her nasal passages Monday and she was told Wednesday afternoon that it had come back positive for anthrax.

"When I first found out, it was like the wind knocked out of you. You don't know what all of it means until it's explained to you," Dailey said.

She is taking antibiotics to ward off the bacteria.

The case has prompted fear in South Florida and raised concerns across the country about a biological attack using anthrax. Health officials say the contamination is limited to the American Media building in Boca Raton, and the three-story, 66,000-square-foot building has been closed.

Federal authorities have begun a criminal investigation but say there is no evidence of terrorism.

The FBI is awaiting test results on evidence from the building that has been sent to federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention laboratory in Atlanta.

Bob Stevens, a 63-year-old photo editor for the Sun tabloid, died Oct. 5 of inhaled anthrax, an especially rare and lethal form of the disease. Traces of anthrax were later found in the nasal passages of mailroom employee Ernesto Blanco, 73, and on Stevens' computer keyboard. The Associated Press reported that a law enforcement official speaking on condition of anonymity said Thursday that traces of anthrax have also been found in the mailroom.

Dailey refused to discuss how she may have come in contact with the bacteria, citing the investigation. She is an office services associate whose duties include receiving packages and delivering the mail.

She said she knows Blanco, whose wife, Elda Miguel, said he was improving at an area hospital.

As hundreds of American Media employees await test results, Dailey joined some of them at temporary offices in Delray Beach. "You've got to go back and get going, I guess," she said.

Dailey's neighbors said the case has made them more aware of their vulnerability.

"Everything that's happened so far in the last month is hitting closer and closer to me, and now it's right across the street," said Jason Tengbergen, who lives three doors away from Dailey.

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