Preliminary tests of a letter opened Monday in the offices of Senate Majority Leader Thomas Daschle, D-S.D., showed traces of anthrax bacteria, bringing the threat of bioterrorism to the nation's capital.
Capitol Police, after conducting two tests on the suspicious material, quarantined Daschle's personal office, administered antibiotics to more than 40 of his staff members and temporarily stopped delivering mail to House and Senate buildings.
What began in Florida two weeks ago as a single case of the rare and often fatal disease has become an ever-widening investigation into confirmed incidents of anthrax exposure at five locations in two states and the District of Columbia, as well as hundreds of hoaxes and false alarms around the world.
In New York, where officials already were investigating a case of cutaneous anthrax in an NBC News employee, the 7-month-old son of an ABC-TV employee was found Monday to have that same, relatively mild form of the illness, transmitted through the skin. ABC News President David Westin said the child had visited the network's Manhattan offices Sept. 28 and that, although they did not know for sure, officials were operating under the assumption that the child had contracted the disease there. Westin said the child's 'prognosis is excellent.'
At the tabloid newspaper office in Florida where the first case was reported, a second man was found to have pulmonary anthrax, the far more serious variation caused by inhaling the bacteria. Last week, doctors said Ernesto Blanco, 73, had anthrax spores in his nasal passage but had not actually developed the disease. Monday, on the basis of new tests, health officials reported that Blanco has, indeed, developed anthrax but is on antibiotics and expected to recover. His co-worker, Bob Stevens, 63, died of the illness Oct. 5.
Even as potential new cases arose, investigators were in the process of ruling out others that had been widely reported. Officials in Nevada and New Jersey, pursuing separate incidents of possible anthrax infection, said Monday that all the individuals involved had tested negative.
'Anthrax is in many ways the ideal terrorizing agent,' said Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., a physician. 'The goal is to personalize the potential for harm, and clearly, that goal is being accomplished.'
