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© St. Petersburg Times, published October 16, 2001
BOCA RATON -- A second employee of a Florida supermarket tabloid publisher has the inhaled form of anthrax, health officials said Monday.
Ernesto Blanco, 73, "is improving and the public health officials are encouraged by his progress," state health officials said.
Blanco has been treated for anthrax since he was hospitalized earlier this month for what was believed to be pneumonia. At the time, officials said Blanco had anthrax bacteria in his nasal passages but had not been diagnosed with the disease.
"The overall picture of clinical symptoms combined with positive laboratory tests suggests to health officials that this individual has anthrax," state health officials said. More tests were planned.
One of Blanco's co-workers at the Sun tabloid, Robert Stevens, 63, died of inhalation anthrax Oct. 5 -- the first such death in the United States since 1976. Another was treated with antibiotics after a swab of her nasal passages found traces of anthrax. Stephanie Dailey, 36, has since returned to work.
Anthrax spores were also found on Stevens' computer keyboard and in the mailroom of the American Media building in Boca Raton.
As many as five other employees have tested positive for exposure to anthrax, but none has come down with the disease. Hundreds of people who worked in the building or visited are awaiting blood test results.
Experts estimate 8,000 to 10,000 spores taken into the lungs can cause inhaled anthrax, a much more lethal form of the disease than the more common cutaneous -- or skin -- form.
Until the Florida cases, only 18 instances of inhalation anthrax had been reported in the United States during the 20th century, the most recent in 1976 in California. Unless the disease is treated before symptoms begin, 90 percent of victims die within days.
Last week, Blanco's stepdaughter, Maria Orth, said the family had been given conflicting information from doctors on what was wrong.
"One of his doctors disagrees that he ever had anthrax," she said Friday. "Yet, another doctor assured me he did have it in his bloodstream and in his lungs. It's very confusing."
The first round of blood tests taken last week on some 400 American Media employees and visitors were complete but not yet available. More than 300 more people are expected to undergo a second round of blood tests beginning as early as Wednesday.
Anthrax spores also have been discovered at a Boca Raton postal processing center that handles mail for the tabloid where anthrax was discovered just more than a week ago, and 31 postal employees are taking antibiotics as a precaution. All have tested negative for anthrax exposure.
A small section of the office, which is not open to the public, was closed Monday afternoon and was scheduled to reopen this morning, said Frank Penela, a spokesman for the state Department of Health. The Environmental Protection Agency will oversee cleanup.
A statement from the Palm Beach County Health Department said additional testing is not recommended for visitors to the post office center or for people whose personal or business mail is processed there.
City Mayor Steven Abrams, meanwhile, began trying to burnish the city's image as anthrax stories with Boca Raton datelines continued to mount.
"It's not related to the rest of our city, to our beaches and our parks and our shopping," he said.
-- Times staff writers Wes Allison and Katherine Wexler contributed to this report.