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CNN Live At Daybreak

No Traces of Anthrax at Hospital Where New York Worker Diagnosed with Inhalation Anthrax

Aired October 31, 2001 - 05:16   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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And we are back now at 16 minutes after the hour with the latest developments in America's war against terrorism.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: The roar of Allied fighters overhead and a large explosion was reported overnight near the Taliban strengthened of Kandahar. A CNN correspondent in Afghanistan reports hearing what sounded like a C-130 transport flying low over the city.

HARRIS: U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says, "a modest amount of ground troops are now inside Afghanistan." And he says that they are mostly operating in the north.

KAGAN: And on the domestic front, homeland security chief Tom Ridge is reminding law enforcement authorities to be on alert. That call underscoring the FBI's October 11 warning that more terrorist attacks on the U.S. may be in the works.

HARRIS: And the anthrax investigation is getting more and more complicated with a New York woman now hospitalized in critical condition with the inhalation form of the infection and she was nowhere near any mail rooms or any media outlets that may have had it. Another woman in New Jersey released -- is released from the hospital after being treated for skin anthrax. She is OK.

KAGAN: Leon, let's talk more about that puzzle in New York City, where the mayor is saying that tests at a Manhattan hospital have found no traces of anthrax, despite the fact that a supply room worker has been confirmed with the inhalation form of the infection.

Our national correspondent Eileen O'Connor now reports this case has investigators looking once again inside the mail bags, looking for more answers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

EILEEN O'CONNOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Investigators are perplexed. How did a woman who worked primarily in a storeroom of this eye, ear, nose and throat hospital in New York, where she had no special contact with the mail, come down with inhalation anthrax? MAYOR RUDY GIULIANI (R), NEW YORK: There's no question there's the possibility she got it somewhere else. O'CONNOR: She's in critical condition at another hospital. The hospital where she worked has tested clean so far, but anyone who's been there lately will be tested and treated, and some questioned.

KENNETH RASKE, NEW YORK HOSPITAL ASSOCIATION: ... had an exposure of over an hour since October 11, and they will be treated.

O'CONNOR: Another mystery, a case of skin anthrax in an office building in the same town in New Jersey where anthrax laced letters were postmarked. As a precaution, investigators checked several offices in that building, including a field office of a Congressman.

The infected woman is doing fine, but again, she's not a postal worker. How did she get it? Her coworkers say they doubt she got it at the office.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The fact that I have been in that office for three weeks and I, you know, or whatever length of time it's been since she was infected, and I haven't, you know, contracted anything, you know, I'm not overly concerned.

O'CONNOR: After weeks of saying the mail is safe, health officials are now not ruling out the possibility she contracted the disease at home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is being intensively investigated right now.

O'CONNOR: In addition to these new cases of anthrax in seemingly unrelated people, more post offices down the distribution chain from contaminated mail handling facilities are also showing traces.

(on camera): Investigators say it's possible the contamination came from the anthrax laced substance in the letter sent to Senate majority leader Tom Daschle. But whether there was enough actual anthrax spores to cause so many infections is unknown.

SEN. THOMAS DASCHLE (D-SD), SENATE MINORITY LEADER: We haven't been told any figure. I don't think it's possible to do a spore count. We were told a couple of grams.

O'CONNOR (voice-over): Investigative sources say the Daschle letter appeared stained, raising the possibility of leakage, more likely with that letter, they say, than with the others sent.

JOHN POTTER, POSTMASTER GENERAL: That paper was more porous than the previous paper and allowed the anthrax to move through the paper.

O'CONNOR: But given two inhalation cases in places which never handled the Daschle letter, some investigators believe there must be other letters among mail already impounded.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're making plans to go through that piece by piece.

O'CONNOR: But not, they say, before it's thoroughly sanitized. Eileen O'Connor, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Well, U.S. military officials aren't taking any chances that an anthrax contaminated letter might reach service personnel. They have called off two letter writing campaigns intended to boost troop morale. The Pentagon says the program's Operation Dear Abby and any service member made it a bit too easy to send unidentifiable letters to the men and women in uniform. No idea when those programs will be resumed, either.

And it seems that even the experts are getting a crash course in how anthrax contamination spreads. Postmaster General John Potter says that he was originally told that anthrax spores could not pass through a sealed envelope, but apparently they can.

CNN medical news correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta has this show and tell report for you.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Last week, in order to demonstrate how anthrax spores may have gotten outside an envelope, we took some standard talcum powder, put it inside a standard envelope, sealed it in a standard fashion and then we tapped on it. We found that the talcum powder, which is about 30 to 40 microns in size, actually came not only through the sides of the envelope, but through the paper itself. That's in comparison to anthrax spores, which are about one to five microns in size. You can't see them. Those are the ones that inhalational anthrax.

We also called a few paper companies and found that the pores in most paper are about 100 microns in size. The question today is whether an envelope full of anthrax spores, or, in this case, fluorescent orange talcum powder, could actually contaminate other envelopes.

We filled this one up in our standard envelope and we're going to throw it inside the mail bin after it's been sealed. After putting this envelope in this mail bin, we jostle it around, trying to approximate what it might go through in a mail facility through a mail sorter. And then we stop.

Now, with the naked eye, we really don't see much. But bringing up this black light, we begin to see some areas of powder on envelopes. For example, this one, which appears to be covered in powder. And this one, which has powder around its edges.

Now, is it possible that anthrax spores or, in this case, fluorescent orange powder, could remain on the envelope as it is transported from a postal facility to the mailbox of your home or your business? Well, we don't know. These are just demonstrations. But it might be a possibility.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.

HARRIS: Well, if that doesn't get your attention, I don't know what will.

KAGAN: Right. The key of that is that we don't know. That's what I think is making so many people frightened out there.

HARRIS: Exactly. There's a lot to learn here.

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