N.Y., Nev. Letters Show Anthrax Contamination

N E W   Y O R K, Oct. 13, 2001 -- 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.

Plane Held at Airport

Eighty passengers were held aboard a United Airlines jet that arrived this afternoon in San Jose, Calif. from Chicago after a man reportedly stood up and released apowdery substance into the air ventilation system.

Police, FBI and emergency crews set up a decontamination tent for the passengers of United Airlines Flight 1669 from Chicago and they were still being held there at 9:15 p.m. ET.

"There was apparently a report of a middle eastern male whowent to the rear of the plane and opened up an envelope. It hadsome powder in it and it went through the air duct system,"San Jose police department spokesman Rubens Dalaison told the Associated Press.

'Hoaxes' And Suspicions Have Nation Edgy

In California, a source told ABCNEWS that a letter sent to Sony Pictures Entertainment in Culver City tested positive Friday for anthrax.

But a Sony spokesman said today that nothing had tested positive for anthrax. Susan Tick, senior vice president for corporate communications, said a temporary employee reported going through old mail and coming in contact with some white powder.

The local fire department was contacted but officials did not find any powder to test, Tick said. The employee was tested for anthrax but was not admitted to the hospital, she said.

Matt McLaughlin, an FBI spokesman in Los Angeles, said authorities had tested a suspicious package found at Sony for anthrax and it tested false. "The situation has been regarged as a hoax," he said.

Times' Letter Tests Negative, Country on Alert

A suspicious letter received by a New York Times reporter tested negative for anthrax or chemical strains. The letter, received Friday, had the same handwriting and St. Petersburg, Fla., postmark as the second letter to NBC News, and also contained a white powder.

The latest reports of anthrax come less than a week after a Florida man died of the inhaled form of anthrax and two of his co-workers were exposed to the bacteria. In that case and others reported around the country, authorities say they have no evidence linking the anthrax to the Sept. 11 attacks on America.

President Bush referred to the infections today in his radio address to the nation.

"I understand that many Americans are feeling uneasy," he said. "But all Americans should be assured: We are taking strong precautions. We are vigilant, we are determined, the country is alert."

New Yorkers streamed into emergency rooms Friday after the NBC incident was revealed, intensifying fear about bioterrorism in a city and nation already on edge.

Giuliani continued to reiterate today that there was no reason for public alarm.

"Early indications are that there doesn't seem to be any spread of the disease," he said. "I think people now understand a lot more about anthrax than they ever wanted to know. It can be treated and cured. People should not be nervous or overwrought about it."

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

Latest Reports: Yes in Nevada, No in California

Officials revealed Friday that Erin O'Connor, NBC news anchor Tom 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.

Tests showed the powder was negative for anthrax but today, New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani announced that a second threatening letter postmarked Sept. 18 was sent to Brokaw and this one tested positive for anthrax.

Unlike the Sept. 20 letter, which sources said had a St. Petersburg postmark, the Sept. 18 letter was postmarked in Trenton, N.J.

At The New York Times, officials announced that a powdery whitesubstance in an envelope sent to one of its reporters testednegative for anthrax and other dangerous biological materials. The CDC is conducting more tests but results are not expected until Tuesday, said Times spokeswoman Catherine Mathis.

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