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CNN Live Saturday

CDC's Dr. Ostroff Discusses Anthrax Investigation

Aired October 20, 2001 - 16:15   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: As you well know, the anthrax story continues to unfold in several different places. A breakdown now, so you can follow along as we do try as well, of the different cases we've been watching nationwide.

So far, there are 40. Only eight of those though are confirmed anthrax infections. That is critical once again. Six of those are the cutaneous or the skin variety. The other two are the inhaled form. The other 80 percent of anthrax cases we have seen so far and know of so far, are anthrax exposure.

Most of those cases came from the Senate Hart office building and there has been one anthrax-related death since this story began, 63- year-old Robert Stevens in Florida, one of the two people infected by inhaling anthrax. He was a photo editor for American Media, working in Boca Raton, Florida.

CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: Now when Robert Stevens' illness began making news, it was thought to be an isolated case, and then other cases began turning up in New York, though not as severe. The number of confirmed infections there, as you know, stands at four.

And joining us from our New York bureau is the point man for the CDC's investigation there, Dr. Stephen Ostroff. And doctor, I apologize first if I mispronounced your name. Can you say it for me so we don't mispronounce it again?

DR. STEPHEN OSTROFF, CDC: No, you got it just right.

CALLAWAY: Oh, well, that's excellent. I want to start off on the right foot. First tell us about this employee with the New York Post that now has, can you tell us what the latest is on that situation?

STEPHEN OSTROFF: Well, the circumstances of that case look fairly similar to all the other cases that have occurred in New York. In each instance, this is an individual who spends a lot of time opening the mail, and all of these individuals had an onset of illness basically in late September, and so we think that these events are related to something that would have been received in mid-September.

At ABC News, we have a young child who was brought into the newsroom on a particular date, which was towards the end of September. In the other three instances, they are employees of the different networks. And, the latest case that's been identified is an employee at the "New York Post" which shares the same building with Fox Television News.

So, the circumstances all basically look the same.

CALLAWAY: Any idea, is there any way that they'll be able to tell if it is from the same group or the same batch of anthrax?

OSTROFF: Well, you know that's an issue for the criminal investigation which I'm not directly involved in. You know, certainly what we have here is the only definitive identification of the anthrax is in the environment at ABC; and in addition to that, we actually have the implicated letter from NBC so we're able to compare the bug itself to the organism that was isolated down in Florida, as well as what was found in Washington.

We know that the bug itself is basically the same in all three situations. As far as the material itself, that's a little bit different.

CALLAWAY: Yes. I think it's important that you clarify for us the difference between being exposed and an infection. Certainly there have been many more exposures than we've seen infections, and how difficult it is to actually become infected from anthrax.

OSTROFF: Right. It's a very important point, and you have to realize that simply being exposed and potentially finding, you know, some of these positive nasal swabs does not necessarily translate to the fact that you may get disease.

We know that, for instance at NBC Television, we have tested large, large numbers of employees and all of them basically are negative. It could well have been if the same testing had been done at the time that the actual envelope had been opened, many of them may have been positive at that time and these individuals did not contract anthrax.

There's a difference between exposure probably to small numbers of the organism, which are not sufficient to actually produce disease, either the cutaneous variety or the inhalation variety, and getting a large enough dose in order to produce disease.

Based on what we've seen in each of these instances, it appears that only the individuals who were in very close contact with the letter appear to be at risk.

CALLAWAY: That's good news that it is just in close contact. Certainly we've learned more than we ever wanted to know about anthrax over the last two weeks doctor.

OSTROFF: Yes.

CALLAWAY: Dr. Stephen Ostroff, thank you for joining us today.

OSTROFF: Thank you.

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