More anthrax found in D.C.

Los Angeles Times and Associated Press

WASHINGTON — More traces of anthrax were discovered Sunday night in a government building and at a facility that processes Justice Department mail, and health officials confirm another case of inhalation anthrax in a New Jersey postal worker, that state’s first case of the most serious form of the disease that has killed three people.

The latest case involves a woman who works at a Hamilton Square postal facility that processed three anthrax-laden letters mailed to New York and Washington.

The national total for anthrax infections in the outbreak stood Sunday night at 13, and three people have died from the disease.

The unidentified woman, whose condition is improving, had previously been identified as a suspected anthrax case, said Susan McClure, a spokeswoman for the state Health Department. Test results returned Sunday confirmed the diagnosis.

The case was reported as the White House warned Sunday that other tainted letters could still be circulating in the postal system.

"There may be other letters that are stuck in the system," White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card said on "Fox News Sunday." "We’re asking people to be very careful."

Despite the strain on the system, postal vice president Deborah Willhite vowed the mail will go through.

"We’re coming up to the first of the month, and a lot of people are very dependent upon the movement of mail, receiving and sending of financial instruments is a vital public service," she said. "The Postal Service will rise to that duty."

On Capitol Hill, the Hart Senate Office Building was to remain closed today but the garage it shares with the adjacent Dirksen building was scheduled to reopen along with other Senate offices. On the House side, the Ford and Longworth office buildings were closed thorough the weekend. Whether they would reopen today was unclear.

On Sunday, another anthrax trace was found in the Ford building, in the office of the police bomb squad that responded to the Daschle office incident, a senior House aide said.

Also, a facility that handles mail for the Justice Department has tested positive for anthrax, a department spokeswoman said Sunday night.

Samples from a variety of locations within the suburban Landover, Md., facility showed the presence of anthrax, including locations that handle mail for Attorney General John Ashcroft, Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson and other leadership offices, said spokeswoman Susan Dryden.

Mail for the Justice Department is first processed at the Brentwood mail facility in the District of Columbia, which is now closed, and then sent to the Landover facility. Two mail handlers at the Brentwood facility have died.

Dr. Ivan Walks, Washington’s public health director, and Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health said doxycycline was being recommended because it has fewer side effects that Cipro, which had been prescribed at first. Willhite said postal workers were being switched to doxycycline at the suggestion of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Fauci said tests on the anthrax show it can be treated with the less costly and more available doxycycline, so that drug is now being recommended for people who deal with large volumes of mail, including workers in private mailrooms.

As environmental testing continued in congressional offices, "there could be some other hot spots," House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, D-Mo, said on CBS’s "Face the Nation."

Gephardt, in his television interview, criticized some government officials, whom he did not mention by name, for failing to be more forthcoming on the potency of the brand of anthrax contained in the letter to Daschle.

"In some officials’ mind, the idea was, if you give people information it will panic people," Gephardt said. "The opposite is true. When they find out the information is not altogether true … then I think you cause panic."