Tuesday October 30 12:59 AM ET

N.Y. Woman Tests for Inhaled Anthrax

By JIM FITZGERALD, Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK (AP) - Preliminary tests indicate a 61-year-old hospital stockroom employee has contracted inhalation anthrax, the mayor said Monday night.

The woman was in ``very, very serious'' condition and on a respirator, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani (news - web sites) said. She has been hospitalized since Sunday, when she went to an emergency room with a severe respiratory ailment.

The mayor said the woman, who was not identified, is undergoing more tests. If confirmed, she would be the first New York resident to come down with the more dangerous inhaled form of the disease.

The source of the woman's infection was not known. She works at the Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital in Manhattan.

New York City has had four confirmed skin anthrax cases, all linked to news media outlets.

Investigators determined that anthrax-laced letters addressed to NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw and the New York Post passed through the city's biggest mail-sorting center.

Union leaders have repeatedly requested that the nine-story, 2-million-square-foot Morgan Processing and Distribution Center in midtown be closed for testing since traces of anthrax were found on sorting machines.

On Monday, a postal workers union sued the U.S. Postal Service, seeking to force the facility to close.

``We're simply asking the post office to close the building and make sure it's safe,'' said William Smith, president of the New York Metro Area Postal Union. ``Test everybody and tell us they haven't been exposed. If that's not done, we shouldn't be in that building.''

David Solomon, regional vice president for operations for the Postal Service, said medical experts say the contamination in the building is isolated and ``can be safely blocked off and remedied accordingly without closing the building or jeopardizing our employees' health.''

``If they tell us there is a danger to the safety of our employees we will close it down,'' he said.

The lawsuit, filed by an attorney for the New York chapter of the American Postal Workers Union, claims the Postal Service engaged in the storage and transportation of hazardous substances without a permit.

``Lawsuits are for when things break down,'' lawyer Louie Nikolaidis said. ``Obviously we have a situation with anthrax where things have broken down.''

Absenteeism at the center has climbed to nearly 30 percent, the Postal Service said.

No postal employees in New York have been diagnosed with anthrax.

Another lawsuit against the Postal Service was filed Monday in Florida. In that lawsuit, the American Postal Workers Union's South Florida local seeks an emergency hearing on a union request for speedy arbitration on demands to close, test and, if necessary, clean 10 to 12 facilities from Boca Raton to Miami.

The union accused the agency of foot-dragging on anthrax detection and employee safety and testing in south Florida, where the first victim died.

Postal Service spokeswoman Enola Rice said the agency would have no comment on the Florida lawsuit until officials have seen it.

-- Anonymous, October 29, 2001

Answers

Oct 30, 2001

Hospital Worker Preliminarily Tests Positive for Inhalation Anthrax; First Such Case in NYC

By Verena Dobnik Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK (AP) - A 61-year-old hospital worker was on a respirator in "very serious condition" after becoming what is believed to be the first New Yorker to test positive for the dangerous inhalation anthrax, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said.

More tests were being conducted to determine how the woman, a stockroom employee of the Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital, contracted the potentially deadly bacteria, the mayor said.

Health officials were awaiting tests results to make a final determination Tuesday. The cause of the infection was not immediately known.

"We have to assume on the theory and the assumption that it is anthrax," Giuliani said.

New York City has been a focus of the anthrax investigation since an assistant to NBC anchorman Tom Brokaw was infected earlier this month. The city has had four confirmed skin anthrax cases - all at media outlets - but none of the more-serious inhaled form.

In Florida, New Jersey and Washington, D.C., three people have died from inhaled anthrax, three others have confirmed cases, and one has survived.

The New York woman, whose identity was not released, started showing possible symptoms of anthrax on Thursday, Giuliani said. By Sunday she was in severe respiratory distress and went to the emergency room of Lenox Hill Hospital.

"There was a rapid progression from Saturday to Sunday," said city Health Commissioner Neal Cohen.

After the initial tests returned positive showing the woman had contracted inhalation anthrax, a hazardous materials unit was dispatched to the woman's workplace for environmental samples. Nasal swabs were taken from 25 workers and those tested were given antibiotics. About 300 full-time employees work at the hospital, which does not admit patients overnight.

Repeated phone calls to the hospital early Tuesday went unanswered.

Giuliani said that as employees came to work Tuesday morning, they would be taken to a separate area and interviewed as part of the investigation.

The woman worked near a mail room but didn't ordinarily handle mail, which has been a source of anthrax in Washington, D.C., and New York.

Authorities late Monday were tracing mail routes that lead to the hospital.

City health officials are also contacting patients who visited the hospital over the past two weeks, the incubation period for anthrax.

Earlier Monday, a postal union filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Postal Service to force the closing of New York's biggest mail-sorting center for testing.

"We're simply asking the post office to close the building and make sure it's safe," William Smith, the union president said of the 2-million-square-foot Morgan Processing and Distribution Center. "Test everybody and tell us they haven't been exposed. If that's not done, we shouldn't be in that building."

The Postal Service also announced that absenteeism there had climbed to nearly 30 percent since traces of anthrax were found on sorting machines.

But despite the anthrax difficulties, there have been only "minor, minor disruptions" of mail delivery, a Postal Service executive said.

No postal employees in New York have come down with anthrax.

AP-ES-10-30-01 0742EST

This story can be found at : http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGASVK4PFTC.html

-- Anonymous, October 30, 2001

Can you just imagine for a minute the hassles that would be created if that mail center building was closed?

While I am a member of the union, I do not see the necessity for closing the facilities at this point.

Anthrax is curable. I think some people are forgetting that.

I wonder if this hospital worker is sick from mail that came into contact with laced mail, or maybe she at some point came into contact with the letter carrier who had anthrax on her mail bag or something like that.

One has to understand that since they have barricaded the contaminated area, no other workers at the postal center have been diagnosed with Anthrax. Yes, it can take longer to show up in some people. Until then, the authorities [read scientists] say that this is enough. When other workers show positive, the authorities will re-think the precautions.

what the hell else can they do? We cannot disrupt the US by closing mail centers. That is giving in to the terrorists, letting them win.

I won't do that.

-- Anonymous, October 30, 2001

I heard on Fox that the stockroom and mailroom were a combined facility until very recently.

-- Anonymous, October 30, 2001