Anthrax discovered at White House mail facility

Herald news services

WASHINGTON — The nation’s anthrax scare hit the White House on Tuesday with the discovery of a small concentration of spores at an off-site mail processing center, as bioterrorism claimed fresh victims along the East Coast.

"We’re working hard at finding out who’s doing this," President Bush said. He proclaimed the executive mansion safe, and said three times, "I don’t have anthrax."

Asked if he was tested for the germ, which has killed three people this month, or if he was taking precautionary antibiotics, Bush replied simply, "I don’t have anthrax."

Bush said he had approved spending $175 million immediately for improved safety at postal facilities.

Also Tuesday, officials announced additional confirmed and suspected cases of inhalation anthrax, Congress returned to work, and the administration pledged a more aggressive testing and treatment program if additional tainted letters are discovered. Thousands of postal workers began antibiotic treatments.

Outside the White House, House Democratic Leader Dick Gephardt said "weapons-grade material" was responsible for spreading the infections.

For his part, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson pushed Bayer Corp. to lower its price for Cipro, a front-line anti-anthrax drug, to less than $1 per pill. Bayer announced an "agreement in principle" with the government over the price. Bayer initially asked between $1.75 and $1.85 a pill, Thompson said.

The administration has been buffeted by criticism for waiting several days after the discovery of the letter addressed to Daschle before ordering testing at the central postal facility for the nation’s capital. Without acknowledging any shortcomings, several officials pointed to changes in their outlook.

"We’re going to err on the side of caution in making sure people are protected," Thompson said.

"When a case of anthrax does emerge, we will immediately move in at any and all postal facilities that might have handled that piece of mail," he said.

He spoke as the U.S. Postal Service offered antibiotics as a precaution to 7,000 employees of six Manhattan post offices that may have been in the path of anthrax-contaminated letters.

Large amounts of government mail were being quarantined in trailers, waiting to be decontaminated before delivery in Washington, D.C., a senior postal official said Tuesday, speaking on condition of anonymity.

District of Columbia Mayor Anthony Williams said final laboratory results confirmed inhalation anthrax as the cause of death of two men who worked at the city’s main Brentwood postal facility. Other officials said two more employees remain hospitalized with the disease, and said anthrax was suspected in additional cases. Anthrax-laced mail delivered last week to Daschle’s office was postmarked in Trenton, N.J., and went through the Brentwood facility.

Late Tuesday night, a government official said about half of 30 swabs taken at Brentwood in areas where the infected employees worked have tested positive for anthrax. Additional testing has begun to check other areas, including the building’s ventilation system, the official said.

"We do not need further testing," said Dr. Ivan Walks, the city’s top health official. "But we need to treat. And we need to treat quickly."

He urged anyone who visited the back area of the central mail facility to come in for antibiotics.

Earlier, New Jersey officials announced that a woman had been hospitalized in the Trenton area and was presumed to be suffering from the inhalation form of the disease. "She’s holding her own," said state epidemiologist Dr. Eddy Bresnitz.

The woman, whose name was not released, works at a Trenton-area postal facility believed to have processed at least three anthrax-laced letters — one to Daschle, the second to NBC News anchorman Tom Brokaw and the third to the New York Post.

Still later, officials in Montgomery County, Md., said they were checking three postal workers from Brentwood for possible anthrax symptoms at a local hospital. And state officials in Towson, Md., said one patient at a separate hospital is suspected of having the disease.

In other developments:

  • The FBI released copies of the letters mailed to Daschle, Brokaw and the New York Post — each dated Sept. 11 although postmarked at later dates. All three contained anti-American and anti-Israeli messages.

  • Senate leaders announced plans to reopen one of the three office buildings on their side of the Capitol today. Two sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the decision overruled an initial recommendation from scientists and health officials who wanted it to remain closed while decontamination proceeded in nearby buildings.

  • The State Department issued a worldwide alert warning for U.S. citizens to be mindful of the risk of anthrax or other biological or chemical agents.

  • A mysterious material dropped by a crop-dusting plane over a tiny Coast Guard post on the Mississippi River on Friday was fertilizer, not anthrax, authorities said Tuesday.
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