N.Y., Nev. Letters Show Anthrax Contamination

N E W   Y O R K, Oct. 13 -- As authorities try to calm down a nervous nation, five more employees of American Media, Inc. in Boca Raton, Fla. tested positive for exposure to anthrax and other anthrax scares spread across the country, both real and unfounded.

A letter sent to a Microsoft Licensing office in Reno, Nevada from Malaysia, a known stronghold of Osama bin Laden, tested positive for anthrax. The letter contained a check and was initially sent out by Microsoft, tampered with and returned with pornographic materials in it. A third anthrax test on that letter had come back positive, according to Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn.

So far, no one has tested positive for the disease or become ill in Nevada. Six people came into immediate contact with the letter and they are the only ones being monitored for possible exposure to anthrax, Guinn said.

"This is a very, very low risk to public health," Guinn said.

Tests on a letter addressed to NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw and received on Sept. 18 also tested positive for anthrax. Authorities believe that letter contained the anthrax that infected the NBC employee.

Erin O'Connor, Brokaw's personal assistant, contracted cutaneous, or "skin," anthrax — less dangerous than inhaled anthrax and rarely fatal if treated. On Sept. 25, O'Connor opened a piece of suspicious mail with powder inside that was postmarked Sept. 20. That letter, from St. Petersburg, Fla. did not test positive for anthrax. But a second letter postmarked from Trenton, N.J. and received on Sept. 18 did test positive for traces of anthrax.

A second NBC News assistant who handled the Sept 18 letter is being tested for exposure. She is taking antibiotics and has exhibited possible early symptoms of anthrax, including a low-grade fever, swollen lymph nodes and a rash

Several floors of the NBC headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Center will remain closed for at least a few days as health officials test the building. So far, 358 employees have been tested along with other workers in the area.