Notebook: October 12, 2001
Another case of anthrax
infection in America was reported on Friday, this time in New York
City, heightening concerns about the possibility of terrorist attacks
using bioweapons.
A female employee of NBC News who works at the company's headquarters in Manhattan is being treated with antibiotics for anthrax infection and is responding well, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani announced at a news conference in New York on Friday.
He said the new anthrax case may be related to a letter containing a white powder that was received at NBC offices on September 25.
The FBI has begun a criminal investigation into the incident, which officials said did not appear to be related to recent cases of anthrax infection in Florida, including one man who died. Since the September 11 terrorist attacks and the earlier reported cases of anthrax, police and the FBI have been besieged with reports of possible contamination with deadly biological agents but nearly all have proven to be hoaxes, officials said.
The third-floor of the NBC headquarters, where the employee with anthrax worked, was being sealed off for further investigation. It was also announced that other people who work on that floor would be treated with antibiotics as a precaution.
According to Guiliani and Andy Lack, the president and chief operating officer of NBC, the woman consulted a doctor when she experienced a rash and fever. The powder from the letter, which she had handled, was tested for anthrax but found to be negative. When a skin biopsy was done, however, it confirmed that the woman was infected with anthrax, and on October 1 she was placed on antibiotics used to treat the disease.
The woman's case was a different form of infection from that of the man in Florida who died. He had inhaled anthrax spores, while the woman has "cutaneous," or skin-based, infection.
At the news conference, Giuliani and health officials said people should not be fearful of becoming infected with anthrax because the disease cannot be passed from person to person.
For more information about anthrax:
Centers for Disease Control Anthrax Site
New York City Department of Health
