New York | Wednesday
A NEW York woman was battling for her life Tuesday in a new confirmed case of inhalation anthrax as authorities remained stumped over the source of the deadly germs.
The 61-year-old hospital worker is on a respirator and ”struggling for survival” in the city’s first case of often lethal inhalation anthrax, said New York Health Commissioner Neal Cohen.
The Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital was closed at least for the day, and results were awaited from environmental samples taken in the areas where the patient worked or was likely to have passed through.
All staff, patients and visitors who have spent at least an hour at the hospital since October 11, two weeks before the patient first began showing symptoms, were urged to go to nearby Lennox Hill Hospital to collect antibiotics as a precautionary measure.
Officials estimated that some 2 000 people should respond to the advice.
Steve Ostroff of the Centers for Disease Control said on Tuesday that the new case was of particular concern ”because it doesn’t fit the pattern” of links to postal workers, politicians or the news media in the bioterror attack that has hit the United States, claiming three lives to date.
A possible linkage, however, is that the woman worked in a basement supply room that was ”jointly housed with the mailroom up until a few days ago,” New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said.
He added, however, that ”there’s no indication of a (contaminated) letter yet.”
Three postal workers are infected in New Jersey, possibly after handling anthrax-laced letters that were mailed to NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw, Senate Majority leader Tom Daschle and the New York Post.
Since the anthrax scare started with the October 5 death of a photo editor in Florida, two postal workers in Washington have died, and another 12 people have been confirmed infected with the disease.
Traces of anthrax have been found at the main post office in West Palm Beach, Florida authorities said on Tuesday.
The discovery brings to five the number of post offices in the southeastern state where spores of the potentially deadly disease were found.
The US administration warned on Monday that new terror attacks may be planned this week, but said it did not have specific information as to the type of attack or specific targets.
On Tuesday, authorities said they found anthrax traces at postal facilities in Washington and in Dulles, Virginia.
Anthrax spores were found on Monday at the US Supreme Court, the State Department and at a building housing the Health and Human Services and the government-owned Voice of America.
Cohen said New York hospitals were put on alert and told to take precautions in their mailrooms.
Of some 40 environmental samples taken at the Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat hospital, 10 have returned negative, and the remainder were expected later on Tuesday.
The results of another 27 samplings taken at the woman’s home in the Bronx were also expected later Tuesday, Giuliani said.
”If all the rest come back negative we’ll have to focus on the possibility that she got it somewhere else,” the mayor said.
Meanwhile, the New York Post reported that a third employee has displayed signs of suspected skin anthrax.
The anthrax scare also spread outside the country.
Six staff members at the US consulate general in Durban, South Africa, were taken to a hospital for tests after a letter containing an unidentified white powder was received at the diplomatic mission.
In Cairo the US embassy and consulate were evacuated after a suspicious substance was found on the premises, an embassy representative said. – Sapa-AFP