Title: Message
2nd Florida man positive for anthrax

By Amanda Riddle | Associated Press
Posted October 8, 2001, 10:45 AM EDT

BOCA RATON -- Anthrax bacteria have been detected in the nasal passage of a co-worker of the man who died last week from the disease, health officials said Monday. The building where both worked was closed after the bacteria also were detected there.

The latest case, a man whose name was not immediately made public, was in good condition Monday at an unidentified hospital, according to the Florida health department. He has not been diagnosed with the disease.

A nasal swab from the patient tested positive for the anthrax bacterium, said Tim O'Conner, regional spokesman for Florida's health department.

It was not yet clear if anthrax had only infiltrated his nose or had gotten into his lungs, officials said. Relatively large anthrax spores that lodge in the upper respiratory tract are less dangerous than smaller spores that get into the lungs.

Doctors "describe his condition as good right now," O'Conner said. "He hasn't been diagnosed with the disease, there's just a presence of (the disease) in his nostrils."

"He was given a nasal swab because he happened to be in a hospital and he was ill," said Barbara Reynolds, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

O'Conner and Reynolds said they did not know what symptoms of illness the man displayed or whether any of the symptoms were consistent with anthrax. The disease in early stages may resemble the flu.

A co-worker of the man, Bob Stevens, died Friday, the first person in 25 years in the United States to have died from the rare inhaled form of anthrax.

Stevens, 63, was a photo editor at the supermarket tabloid The Sun. Environmental tests performed at the Sun's offices in Boca Raton detected the anthrax bacteria, O'Conner said.

The Sun's offices were shuttered, and law enforcement, local and state health and CDC officials were to take additional samples from the building Monday, O'Conner said.

Some of the other environmental samples taken at the newspaper office last week are still being tested, said Reynolds. She would not say just where the sample that tested positive for the bacteria was found.

About 300 people who work in the building were being contacted by the Sun and instructed not to come to work Monday and to undergo antibiotic treatment to prevent the disease. Nasal swabs will also be taken of all the other workers, said Reynolds.

News that Stevens had contracted the disease set off fears of bio-terrorism, particularly because Sept. 11 hijacker Mohamed Atta rented planes four times in August at a flight school at Palm Beach County Park Airport, according to Marian Smith, owner of Palm Beach Flight Training. Stevens' home is within a mile of the airport.

Atta also visited an airfield in Belle Glade, about 40 miles inland from Lantana, and asked workers there questions about their crop-dusters, but never flew one of those planes O'Conner said there is no evidence that either newspaper worker was a victim of terrorism. "That would take a turn in the investigation," he said. "It's a different aspect. We were thinking more of environmental sources."

The FBI was helping in the search for the source of the bacterium, said Miami FBI spokeswoman Judy Orihuela. But "the current risk of anthrax is extremely low," O'Conner said.

It was unclear when final tests would tell whether the second man has full-blown anthrax. The bacterium normally has an incubation period of up to seven days, but can take up to 60 days to develop, O'Conner said.

"We're waiting for additional testing to see if it will become a confirmed case of anthrax or not," said Reynolds of the CDC. "I realize for the public this is going to be a very slight distinction."

Michael Kahane, vice president and general counsel of American Media Inc., which publishes the Sun and two other tabloids, the Globe and the National Enquirer, confirmed the company closed its Boca Raton building at the request of state health officials.

"Obviously, our first concern is the health and well-being of our employees and their families," he said Monday.

Only 18 cases of anthrax contracted by inhalation were documented in the United States in the 20th century, the most recent in 1976 in California.

Officials believe Stevens contracted anthrax naturally in Florida. The disease can be contracted from farm animals or soil, though the bacterium is not normally found among wildlife or livestock in the state. Stevens was described as an avid outdoorsman and gardener.

County medical examiners are looking over any unexplained deaths, but have not found any cases connected to anthrax. Veterinarians have been told to be on alert for animals who might have the disease, but none have turned up.

Health officials also are checking intensive care units of area hospitals to check records going back 30 days for suspicious cases. They should be finished Monday, said O'Conner.

Copyright © 2001, The Associated Press

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