Curiouser and curiouser.

Fox

No Anthrax Found in Woman's Mail, Mailbox, Post Office

Friday, November 23, 2001

OXFORD, Conn. — The anthrax mystery continued in Connecticut after test results revealed none of the deadly bacteria was found at the home, in the mail or at the post offices that handled the mail of a woman who died Wednesday.

Governor John Rowland said all of the samples that were taken on Wednesday came back negative, but there are a couple of samples that haven't yet produced final results.

Investigators focused on the "mail trail" — taking samples from Ottilie Lundgren's home, garbage and mailbox.

Authorities will continue to retrace the routine of the 94-year-old woman in the weeks before she died, he said.

The case is similar to that of a New York City hospital worker who died of inhalation anthrax, he said. In both cases, the victims had no apparent connection to the people or organizations from the media and the government who'd been targeted with anthrax mailings.

Meanwhile, as federal investigators searched for clues to how the Connecticut woman contracted inhalation anthrax, Chilean and U.S. officials confirmed the first reported case of a deadly strain of the bacteria in mail outside the United States.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta confirmed on Thursday that a letter sent from Switzerland to Chile was tainted with anthrax. The letter had been sent to Dr. Antonio Banfi, a pediatrician at a children's hospital in Santiago.

Banfi, who opened the envelope, and 12 others nearby have not tested positive for exposure to anthrax spores but were being treated for the disease as a precaution, according to the Chilean Health Ministry.

Banfi became suspicious because the letter was postmarked in Zurich but marked with a Florida return address, Chilean officials said. No other details were made available.

In Connecticut, law enforcement and health officials were speaking to Lundgren's friends to determine what she did, where she went and who she saw before Nov. 16, when she was admitted to a hospital with flu-like symptoms.

Investigators on Friday completed an initial sweep of Lundgren's home, said Nicole Coffin, a spokeswoman for the CDC.

"That was very thorough, and the samples were taken to the state health department's lab," she said.

Besides sifting through Lundgren's trash and examining her mail, investigators took environmental samples from the few places Lundgren had visited over the past few weeks in this rural town of 9,800.

Friends and relatives said she seldom left her home, except to visit the library, a beauty parlor, doctors' offices and her church.

Investigators have said that cross-contamination of the mail is a leading theory about how Lundgren contracted the disease. "But we're really trying to keep an open mind about any possibility," said FBI spokeswoman Lisa Bull.

Coffin said testing so far has shown that the strain of anthrax that killed Lundgren was similar to anthrax found in other recent cases.

Tests were also due back Friday on two postal service centers that serve Oxford: the post office in neighboring Seymour and a regional mail distribution center in Wallingford.

About 50 postal workers at Seymour and more than 1,100 at Wallingford were offered a 10-day regimen of the antibiotic Cipro. About three-fourths of the workers accepted the drug, postal officials said.

Erik Wexler, executive vice president of MidState Medical Center in Meriden, said the antibiotic was being distributed as a precaution.

In Washington, the president of a major postal employees union said he will advise members to refuse to work in buildings where any trace of anthrax remains.

Two postal workers have died and others have been sickened by anthrax since tainted letters addressed to the news media and members of Congress began appearing. Postal facilities in New Jersey and Washington remain closed for decontamination.

"It's a continuing concern that so much uncertainty continues to exist regarding the source of these infections," said Bill Burrus, president of the 360,000-member American Postal Workers Union.

Nationwide, the U.S. Postal Service has tested 278 facilities for anthrax and found some contamination at 21 of them. Nineteen have been decontaminated and reopened.

Because medical experts differ on how much anthrax is needed to cause an infection, Burrus said, "I'm telling my members we will not work in contaminated facilities."

Postal Service Vice President Azeezaly Jaffer said he believed talks were continuing with the unions on how to respond in the event of future contamination.

There have been several reports worldwide of anthrax being found in mail, but most have turned out to be false. They included cases in Kenya, in the Bahamas and at Pakistan's largest newspaper, in which authorities at first said they had found dangerous forms of anthrax in mail but later said further testing found no anthrax.

In Argentina, anthrax spores were discovered in mail, but tests determined that they were a harmless strain of the bacteria.

-- Anonymous, November 23, 2001

Answers

Why is that no surprise?

I'm really amazed how slow they are to put the pieces together.

-- Anonymous, November 24, 2001

We were 'officially' informed that the Durham postal facility had a [how did they put it?] non-medical amount? of Anthrax on some stamps or something that came from Brentwood. The area was sealed off and decom'ed and the facility remained open. "There was no threat to customers."

Remember, these tests that they mentioned being done are samplings of the facilities. Not the whole facility, but areas that someone decided should be tested. When the news broke about the woman in Connecticut the manual cases for states mail were wiped down with bleach. In normal times, I don't think those cases are cleaned at all unless they are moved to a new spot. Unless the clerk assigned to it cleans it, I s'pose. Never heard of that sort of thing being done before. The floors, which have tiles on them that contain Asbestos, are waxed regularly at the front of the building, but where we are out on the floor the aisles are done maybe twice a year. They can only do them a little at a time since the whole place is being used, but I think they could do the floor more often. Now the maintenance folks cannot use dry brooms or vacuums.

-- Anonymous, November 24, 2001

I had heard about the anthrax scare at the Brentwood facility in Raleigh but had not heard it extended to Durham. There hae been a number of hoaxes/scares in Durham and I guess I just don't hear them any more, even when there's a real one, lol!

-- Anonymous, November 24, 2001

You mentioned it first, IIRC.

Also, Brentwood is not in Raleigh, it is a bit further north, in another state.

-- Anonymous, November 24, 2001

You see how little information I retain about these scares? I realyl do hear what seems like dozens of 'em on the scanner. There's a Brentwood area in Raleigh so I guess I figured that's what it was. All the Durham mail is sorted in Raleigh so I guess I added 2 and 2 and got something other than 4.

-- Anonymous, November 24, 2001