DC Worker 'Gravely Ill' With Anthrax

By LAURA MECKLER, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - A District of Columbia postal worker is ``gravely ill'' with inhaled anthrax, leading government officials to order the testing of an additional 2,150 mail employees, Mayor Anthony Williams said Sunday.

The unidentified man, the third person to come down with the most serious form of the disease, checked into a suburban hospital on Friday and was diagnosed Sunday morning, said Dr. Ivan Walks, chief health officer for the city.

Janice Moore, a spokeswoman for Inova Fairfax Hospital, said the man is in serious condition: ``He is acutely ill.''

More than 2,000 employees at the Brentwood central mail processing center for the nation's capital and another 150 employees at the air mail handling center near Baltimore-Washington International Airport will be tested for exposure to anthrax spores and receive treatment beginning Sunday, Williams said.

``We're going to do everything we can and everything we have to do,'' he said.

Postal insepctor Ken Weaver said how the worker with inhaled anthrax was exposed was still being investated.

``We're trying to trace that down and get to the bottom of this,'' Weaver said on CNN. ``We don't know if there was anything that may have broken open. We don't know what he touched whatever he did touch. That's part of the investigation and we'll get to the bottom of it.''

Dr. John Eisold, the Capitol physician, said 4,500 to 5,000 people have been tested for anthrax since a letter containing anthrax was discovered last Monday in Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle's office. Twenty-eight of those have tested positive for exposure to anthrax but none have contracted the disease, Eisold said.

He said confirmation of inhalation anthrax at the Washington post office ``does not alter how we are treating our patient population here.''

The sweep through the Capitol complex continued Sunday. House and Senate leaders were to be briefed on findings late in the day and planned to hold a news conference to announce whether the Capitol would open Monday, Capitol Police Lt. Dan Nichols said.

Officials said they hoped to be able to open the Capitol itself in time for the House and Senate to reconvene on Tuesday. But one official who spoke on condition of anonymity said House leaders also were looking at Ft. McNair, a military installation near the Capitol, as an alternative location.

Nineteen buildings including and surrounding the Capitol have undergone environmental surveys and anthrax spores have been found in four of them, Nichols said.

Walks said it was not known immediately if the man was exposed from the same letter found in Daschle's office.

The man is the ninth person to be diagnosed with anthrax since a Florida man died early this month. Six of the victims have been exposed through the skin, a less serious form of the disease.

The latest patient was exposed through his respiratory system, a much more serious form of the disease. But he is being treated with antibiotics and is expected to make a full recovery, Walks said.

Dan Mihalko, a U.S. Postal Inspection Service official in Washington, said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites) began testing employees at the Brentwood facility's government mail section for possible anthrax exposure a few days ago.

He said the CDC also ran tests on the mail machinery.

Sen. Bill Frist (news - bio - voting record), a doctor before he joining the Senate, said the victim faces a more uncertain future than those who were exposed through the skin. The only person to die from anthrax during this scare had the inhalation form of the disease, though it was not caught as early.

``It's tragic news,'' said Frist, R-Tenn., on CBS's ``Face the Nation.'' ``On the other hand, hopefully it's been diagnosed at a time where even with inhalation ... it can be treated. It's not obviously as certain as the cutaneous (skin) or other sort of exposure instances are.''

Frist added that this man must have been exposed to a more intense form of the bacterium, strong enough to move through is respiratory track and deep into his lungs.

``Obviously when that postal worker touched it, it was in a more concentrated, virile form,'' Frist said.

The senator offered a possible scenario for exposure: ``As the postal machinery and sometimes the workers compress it, the anthrax then can come out. Most of the envelopes were sealed all around, and the theory is that it came out in a burst of air and that's how it's inhaled.''

On Saturday, the anthrax threat widened as health inspectors found the potentially deadly bacteria in a mail bundling machine in a House office building just a few blocks from the Capitol.

The swab of the machine was taken Wednesday, confirmed Saturday and marked the first time traces of anthrax have been found on the House side of Capitol Hill.

Members of Congress are wondering where else anthrax might linger.

``Now, you got to look at, well, where did that mail go from there?'' asked Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., on ABC's ``This Week.'' ``We're dealing with a new situation. We're trying to deal with it rationally.''

House leaders decided to adjourn after the anthrax was discovered in the Senate to allow for a thorough check of House buildings - a move that brought a barrage of criticism as the Senate stayed in session.

``Now they appear to be vindicated with that decision,'' Lott said.

In New Jersey, federal agents retraced a postal route, searching for the mailbox in which someone may have deposited letters laced with anthrax.

Investigators focused their work on Trenton, N.J., where the letters to Daschle and NBC News anchorman Tom Brokaw were mailed. More than 150 FBI (news - web sites) agents and postal inspectors were on the scene.

``The way these probes work is most of the attention is focused on the point of mailing,'' Mihalko said. ``That's where the bad guy is.''

-- Anonymous, October 21, 2001

Answers

Latest report says he is stable and was watching a football game, the Redskins, maybe? (I'm not a sports person.)

-- Anonymous, October 21, 2001

OG, I'm sure he was watching the Skins, WHO FINALLY WON A GAME!

-- Anonymous, October 21, 2001

OG, I might add that after a horrendous season so far (outscored something like 300 to 2) they finally won this afternoon against the candy ass Carolina Panthers.

-- Anonymous, October 21, 2001

Are they from North or South Carolina?

-- Anonymous, October 21, 2001

I wonder if he had any chips and beer to go along with his gravely ill football?

-- Anonymous, October 21, 2001

OG, I think they're based in Charlotte, though I'm not positive.

-- Anonymous, October 21, 2001

Peter, my condolences on having to root for a team led by Marty Schottenheimer.

I done paid my dues with that coach.

-- Anonymous, October 21, 2001

Brooke: Cleveland or KC?

-- Anonymous, October 21, 2001

The KC Chiefs. Had season tickets for quite a few years. I am very familiar with playoff heartache. But good luck anyway!

-- Anonymous, October 21, 2001

``Obviously when that postal worker touched it, it was in a more concentrated, virile form,'' Frist said.

What, me worried?

-- Anonymous, October 22, 2001

Barefoot, I'm sure it's no match for a virile postal worker such as yourself...

-- Anonymous, October 22, 2001