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Man with anthrax called 'gravely ill'
©Associated Press
© St. Petersburg Times, WASHINGTON -- A District of Columbia postal worker is "gravely ill" from inhalation anthrax, a rare and lethal form of the disease, officials said Sunday, and five others are sick with suspicious symptoms. The Postal Service closed two facilities and began testing more than 2,200 workers for exposure. The man, identified by co-workers as Leroy Richmond of Stafford, Va., is the third person in the nation to come down with the most serious form of the disease, where anthrax spores enter the respiratory system and lodge deep in the lungs. Six others, including two postal workers in New Jersey, have been infected with a highly treatable form that is contracted through the skin. Mayor Anthony Williams said the latest victim, the first in Washington to contract the disease, was "gravely ill." He was listed in serious but stable condition at Inova Fairfax (Va.) Hospital. Five other District postal workers have symptoms consistent with anthrax, and health officials are awaiting test results to determine if they have the disease, said Dr. Ivan Walks, the city's chief medical officer. All five are hospitalized and receiving treatment. As postal workers lined up for testing in Washington, the number of people directly affected -- although not sickened -- by the anthrax-by-letter scare reached well above 5,000 just in the nation's capital. Investigators focused on Trenton, N.J., where some tainted letters were mailed. New Jersey health officials said Sunday that environmental tests had revealed the presence of anthrax spores in 13 of 23 "work areas" in Trenton's main processing facility in Hamilton Township. A thousand postal workers were advised to undergo tests for exposure to anthrax spores. Meantime, congressional leaders said they would reopen the Capitol today, though House and Senate office buildings will remain closed until results from environmental testing are complete. The closures were prompted by an anthrax-laced letter that arrived Oct. 15 at Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle's office. It was processed at the central mail facility where Richmond works, but officials said they did not know whether he came into contact with the letter or whether there might have been other tainted letters that have yet to be discovered. Richmond developed flulike symptoms in the middle of last week but did not feel ill enough to go to the hospital until Friday. Sick with fever and chest pain, he was immediately given Cipro and other antibiotics, but health officials did not know whether they began treatment early enough to save his life. It was unclear how ill Richmond was Sunday, though a postal official said he was alert enough to watch the Redskins game on TV. Health investigators moved quickly to determine whether anthrax was present in either of two postal facilities where Richmond worked and whether other employees might have been exposed. More than 2,100 workers at Washington's main mail processing center and 150 at an air mail handling center near Baltimore-Washington International Airport were asked to report for nasal swab testing, which will help determine where in the buildings exposure might have occurred. Employees will be given a 10-day supply of antibiotics. "God forbid if more comes through," said Larry Bagley, who works near Richmond and was lined up for testing. "I feel I'm all right. I have faith in God and the Cipro." Richmond handles express mail and routinely travels between two facilities, and did not typically come into contact with the large mail sorting machines, said Deborah Willhite, a top Postal Service official. She said it was unclear how he might have inhaled enough anthrax -- at least 8,000 of the invisible spores -- to contract the inhalation form of the disease. On Capitol Hill, an environmental sweep through 19 buildings continued Sunday. Investigators have found traces of anthrax in four of them, and 28 people have tested positive for exposure, though none has been diagnosed with the disease. Last week, the House shut down operations for the first time in history to allow for the sweep. The Senate remained open, causing a rift between the chambers. One man has died from inhalation anthrax: Robert Stevens, a photo editor at the Sun in Boca Raton. A co-worker of Stevens has inhalation anthrax but is doing well, his stepdaughter said Sunday. Ernesto Blanco, 73, no longer is on intravenous medication and is taking oral antibiotics, she said. -- Information from the Washington Post was used in this report.
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From the Times wire desk
From the AP |
