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American Morning

Anthrax Scare: NBC Employee Tests Positive for Anthrax

Aired October 12, 2001 - 11:55   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: According to the Associated Press, the network now reporting it is not the inhaled form, instead a form that is contacted through contact with the skin. Here is the most important point, though, it says the employee's in -- quote -- "no danger and should fully recover." Indeed that is good news.

Kelli Arena live in Washington, watching this and more.

Kelli, what more have we learned.

KELLI ARENA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bill, I can tell that our sources have also confirmed that for us, this was a case of contracted anthrax and not inhaled anthrax as we saw in Florida. The FBI is on its way to investigate. We are told there was a suspicious letter that was sent to the mailroom at NBC headquarters. It was tested. It came back negative. So right now, there is no information on exactly how this employee contracted the anthrax. We also do not know if it's just exposure to or if she actually has the anthrax virus.

So there is a lot that we don't know at this point but the FBI is investigating, and again, we do know that the investigation going on in Florida is criminal. We are told that this investigation will probably go in the same direction as the criminal investigation as well, which means that agents will be gathering information to go forward with a criminal case right from the beginning.

Everyone is on such a high state of alert at this point, Bill, that is the only way it handle things right now. So far, we only know of one person that headquarters, though, that is dealing with this situation right now. It does not look to this point, at least, that it has spread beyond that one employee.

HEMMER: Kelly, quickly, do we know why this employee went for testing in the first place?

ARENA: We don't know. As I said, we do know that there was a suspicious letter that, I believe, came to her, and she opened it, but that tested negative, but they went ahead and did a test anyway. A lot is very murky, Bill, that we don't know. Like I said, the FBI is on the scene, and as we get more information in, then we will get it to you as quickly as possible.

HEMMER: Kelly, before I let you go, again, I want to touch on this point. Rhonda Rowland is getting suited up here, too. We will talk to Rhonda momentarily.

What does it tell us about this form that is contracted through contact with the skin. What do we know about that medically?

ARENA: Medically, I can't help you, Bill, I'm sorry. Investigatively I can tell you.

But it's my understanding from laymen's terms that it's something that comes into contact with your skin and is absorbed through your skin rather than something that you inhaled, and the inhaled type, I am told, is more rare.

HEMMER: Indeed, OK, Kelly, thanks.

Hang on there in Washington a moment here.

Rhonda Rowland is now ready for us, too.

Rhonda, the question I was asking to Kelli, and I can follow up to you as well, contract through the skin when it comes to this particular anthrax, what do we know about it, what does it say about it possibly?

RHONDA ROWLAND, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, again, as she was just saying, this is less serious than the inhaled form of anthrax, and this is something someone would typically get if maybe you're dealing with animals, animal hides, something like that, so that would be your only real exposure to something along those lines, that it would get into the skin, it's more easily treatable. And also, its important to know if this is indeed the case, the CDC right after the September 11th attacks, did send up 35 investigators to New York to monitor for such attacks like this or possibilities like this. And they were sent up there so they could monitor any unusual cases of illnesses in hospitals, to see if there was any kind of unusual outbreak.

And since that time, they had another 15 sent up there. These are part of their epidemic intelligence service. They were on the scene. So if there is indeed a case, we can say that the CDC does have a presence up in New York. Again, if this is a case of skin contact type of anthrax, it is less serious than inhaled. There is also a third type of anthrax, and that is the ingested form, and this is something that is more common in third world countries, where perhaps people are eating animals that have not been vaccinated against it, but again, this is not something that's very common. It would be unusual, Bill, if this was indeed the case.

HEMMER Yes, and what we are trying to figure out as we go through this. We have heard about the dangers of anthrax for so many years. Why is it now that a person has tested positive, but yet is said to fully have recovered? How do we make sense of that.

ROWLAND: To fully recover from the skin form.

HEMMER: They are saying they are not in any danger in terms of a fatality here, based on the wire reports that I'm reading right here.

ROWLAND: Well, that, again, is because the inhaled form is the most serious because it gets into the lymph system, goes into the lungs, into the lymph system, starts circulating through the body, the body responds by building up toxins, toxins that are normally there, but in very, very high doses, and that's when you start to have the very serious consequences, the respiratory failure, organ failure. Again, Bill, if it's on the skin, it's on the skin, it's not getting into the body, into the blood, But again, unusual for somebody to have something like this.

HEMMER: Indeed. Rhonda, thank you.

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