NBC News Worker Has Anthrax

N E W   Y O R K, Oct. 12, 2001 -- An NBC News employee based in New York City has tested positive for anthrax, the network and Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said today, and the FBI has opened a criminal investigation into how the woman became infected.

"The Federal Bureau of Investigation has launched a separate criminal investigation to find out the source of the anthrax in the New York City case," Attorney General John Ashcroft announced today in Washington.

The New York infection follows the discovery of anthrax at another major U.S. media corporation, American Media Inc., in Florida. One employee there died of inhalation anthrax a week ago, and two others tested positive for exposure to the disease, but authorities stress they have no evidence linking the two incidents.

Also today, a New York Times reporter received a letter with the same handwriting and St. Petersburg, Fla., postmark as the suspicious NBC letter, and also containing a white powder. The Times tonight said tests on the powder had come back negativeand further tests were being conducted to confirm the results.

Nevada is also on alert for anthrax exposure. State health officials said tonight they are analyzing a letter sent from Malaysia to a Microsoft Licensing office in Reno that has tested positive for anthrax in preliminary examination. A second test conducted on the sample proved negative for anthrax and a third test is being conducted.

Six people came into immediate contact with the letter and they are the only ones being monitored for possible exposure to anthrax, said Barbara Hunt, Washoe County district health officer.

In New York, the NBC employee was infected through her skin, with a much less deadly form of the disease known as cutaneous anthrax, Giuliani said at a news conference with NBC network head Andrew Lack and FBI officials. Virtually all people with that form of the disease recover completely if treated properly.

The employee was responding well to treatment, Lack said. "She is in good health and in good care," he said. Giuliani said this afternoon the woman was currently resting at home.

The 38-year-old woman, whose name was withheld, works as an assistant to NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw on the third floor of the company's Manhattan headquarters, where the Today show and Saturday Night Live are also produced.

Employee Developed Lesion; Powder Tested Negative

The NBC employee opened a piece of suspicious mail on Sept. 25 that contained a powder, and she reported it to company security. The envelope and powder inside were forwarded to the FBI and tested negative for anthrax, Giuliani said. Despite the negative results, authorities are still highly suspicious of its contents.

"The most likely explanation is that it was linked to this particular letter," said Dr. Stephen Ostroff, an infections disease expert with the Centers for Disease Control. He said there are a number of reasons the material may not have tested positive initially, but officials are examining it further.

The powder came in a business envelope postmarked Sept. 25 with no return address. It contained a letter, but officials declined to comment on its contents.

Health officials began monitoring the NBC employee when she developed a rash, high fever and then a lesion, but she did not test positive for the infection until early this morning, the mayor said.

She had been treated with the antibiotic Cipro — commonly used to treat anthrax — as a precaution shortly after her apparent exposure.

"At this time the source of the anthrax is being investigated and has not yet been determined," Ashcroft told reporters in Washington. "No conclusions have been reached at this time."

President Bush addressed the new infection while speaking at a Hispanic Heritage Month gathering at the White House.

"I want everybody in the country to know we are responding rapidly," Bush said. "Our nation is still in danger but the government is doing everything in our power to protect our citizenry."

Mayor: No Reason for Public to Worry

Several floors of the NBC headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Center will be closed for several days as health officials test the building, Giuliani said. All employees working in the area are being tested for the disease, but there have been no other positive results.

Giuliani said there was no reason for the public to be concerned. "This is in very good hands," he said.

"One piece of good news is that if anyone else was going to be infected, they would have been infected by now," Giuliani said. Still, as a precaution, those who had been tested were being given Cipro.

Giuliani and Barry Mawn, head of the FBI's New York office, stressed there was no evidence the infection was the work of terrorists.

"We see no connection whatsoever" to the Sept. 11 terror attacks, emphasized Mawn.

But the Federal Aviation Administration was on high alert. According to the FBI, FAA officials issued an advisory when air traffic controller overheard transmissions from a business jet coming from Mexico and heard the word "anthrax." But FAA officials could not identify the original source of the transmission and ordered all planes flying around the area to land in airports in Austin, Texas and Tulsa, Okla. so that FBI officials could investigate.

As many as three planes in Austin and five in Tulsa were detained for hours as FBI officials interviewed pilots before allowing them to resume their flights, an FBI official said. Investigators found nothing and think the overheard conversation may have referred to news events.

Skin-Based Anthrax Seldom Fatal

Cutaneous anthrax, the type the NBC employee has, accounts for 95 percent of all known anthrax cases, and is rarely fatal with appropriate treatment. Many people recover completely even without treatment.

This form of infection typically comes from a cut or abrasion that allows the anthrax bacterium to enter the skin.

Anthrax is not contagious — that is, it cannot be passed from person to person and can only be contracted by direct exposure to spores of the bacterium.

The New York infection comes as the FBI continues to investigate the exposure of three employees of The Sun tabloid newspaper in Boca Raton, Fla. One of the employees, 63-year-old photo editor Bob Stevens, died last Friday of inhalation anthrax, which is both very rare and usually fatal.

Two other employees there tested positive for exposure to anthrax. The family of one of those exposed, Ernesto Blanco, told ABCNEWS the 73-year-old man nearly died last weekend. The CDC said it could not yet confirm whether Blanco had actually been infected with anthrax, or merely exposed.

Mailroom Suspected as Source of Florida Exposure

After combing through the offices of American Media, which publishes The Sun, the FBI found anthrax traces on one computer keyboard that was used by Stevens before he died last week, and in a mail container.

Blanco and the other exposed employee, Stephanie Daley, both worked in the mailroom.

As a precaution, health officials have administered anthrax tests to workers at two mail centers that deliver to the American Media offices, said FBI special agent Hector Pesquera. American Media also owns the National Enquirer and several other tabloids.

In total, health officials have tested more than 1,000 individuals for exposure, and have found no additional cases among the 965 lab results they have received so far.

Douglas Beecher, an FBI microbiologist, said today the Florida anthrax strain could be a naturally occurring form of the bacteria.

"This organism shows no indication that there's been any genetic modification," Beecher said.

Speaking today at a news conference about the New York anthrax case, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said there it was not yet clear if the new case was the same strain as the Florida cases.

"There has been no confirmation that this is the same or different," he stressed.

Pesquera said the FBI in Miami was speaking to officials in New York about their case, but said no link had yet been made between the two investigations. Officials in Washington, New York and Miami also said there was no evidence that either of the anthrax cases were connected to terrorism.

Giuliani Urges Caution With Suspicious Packages

Giuliani encouraged people worried about suspicious mail to call authorities and not to open or shake it.

"The thing to do is to call 911," he said. "Leave it where it is."

Several floors of The New York Times offices in Manhattan were evacuated today after the suspicious mail was received.

"This morning Judith Miller, a reporter at The New York Times, received an envelope that contained a powdery white substance," the newspaper said in a statement today.

Miller is the newspaper's bioterrorism expert.

New York Times Receives Letter Similar to NBC Threat

The substance, which the newspaper said smelled like talcum powder, tested negative for radioactive and chemical substances, but conclusive tests for anthrax were still being conducted. Giuliani said 25 were taking antibiotics in connection with the Times as a precaution.

The envelope was similar to the one received by the infected NBC employee, Mawn said, and was also postmarked from St. Petersburg, Fla., and contained no return address. He said the handwriting on both pieces of mail was similar, but offered no further details.

Mawn insisted, however, authorities did not believe the more recent mail contained anthrax, but were taking extensive precautionary and preventative measures.