Baltimore Postal Worker has possible Anthrax

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Anthrax Suspected in Baltimore Postal Worker

BALTIMORE (Reuters) - A Baltimore postal worker who had no direct contact with Washington's Brentwood postal facility has been hospitalized with a suspected case of inhalation anthrax, officials said on Monday. The 53-year-old man, employed at the main post office in downtown Baltimore, was admitted to Greater Baltimore Medical Center with flu-like symptoms late last week.

On Monday, the hospital issued a statement saying he was in stable condition with a suspected case of inhalation anthrax.

Greater Baltimore Medical Center, located in the suburb of Towson, Maryland, has treated and discharged three other suspected inhalation cases over the past week.

The two men and one woman were all postal workers at the Brentwood facility, which handled an anthrax-laden letter sent to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle's office. Two workers there have since died of inhalation anthrax, the deadliest form of the disease.

A spokeswoman for the Greater Baltimore Medical Center said the postal worker now being tested may have handled mail from a postal facility at Baltimore-Washington International Airport, where one of the ailing Brentwood employees also worked.

"We believe he was involved with receiving mail from BWI at the downtown post office," said spokeswoman Kim Davenport.

The BWI airport facility was closed on Oct. 21 and its operations moved to a different venue at the airport's air cargo complex, about 10 miles (16 km) outside Baltimore.

Environmental tests have yet to show the presence of anthrax contamination there, however.

About 280 BWI postal employees and other workers who visited the site have been urged to take preventive antibiotic treatments.

A spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service, which had no information on the latest suspected anthrax case, said the downtown Baltimore post office employs about 2,000 people.

-- Anonymous, October 29, 2001

Answers

so...when are the customers on all the routes going to start dying of anthrax? Or are they already sick and it's being reported as different diseases?

-- Anonymous, October 29, 2001

You've asked the $64,000 question, Helen. Are any customers sick now? If not, why not?

-- Anonymous, October 29, 2001

off! (I typed an /a instead of a /b)

-- Anonymous, October 29, 2001

I'm encouraged by the fact that generic advances in medicine are giving the docs ammunition against a disease they haven't had any experience with for 30 years. Of course, I'm not interested in being one of the guinea pigs...

-- Anonymous, October 29, 2001

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