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American Morning

Bronx Woman's Condition Being Watched After Being Diagnosed with Inhalation Anthrax

Aired October 30, 2001 - 10:02   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: I want to go to New York quickly, CNN's Jason Carroll standing by at the hospital now, where a Bronx woman's condition is being watched closely this morning.

Jason, good morning to you.

JASON CARROLL, CNN ANCHOR: Being watched very closely.

Good morning, again, to you, Bill.

The woman is 61 years old. She works in the stockroom at the eye, ear and throat hospital here in the upper east side of Manhattan.

Apparently, that stock room is located in the basement, near a mailroom, and this woman would deliver mail as part of her regular duties. She became sick on Thursday. She had headache chills. She had a fever, but she still went to work Thursday. She went to work on Friday, but over the weekend, her condition worsened, became far, far worse, and on Sunday, she checked into Lennox Hill Hospital. She was in critical condition. Doctors put her on a respirator almost immediately. And a preliminary test revealed that she did in fact inhalational anthrax, as you say, the most serious form of the disease.

Right now, I want to bring in Mike Waltzman. He is a resident here at the hospital.

Mike, what are they telling you inside right now.

MICHAEL WALTZMAN, RESIDENT: Basically that there is somebody who is ill with inhalation anthrax, and that the exposure may have taken place here at Manhattan Eye and Ear Hospital, and that their trying to get everyone, employees, physicians, nurses together, to identify who may have been exposed and to get them tested appropriately.

CARROLL: Can you give us a sense of what the mood is like inside there? I know you've had the opportunity to speak to many of the people who work here.

WALTZMAN: The mood is somewhat somber. People are somewhat outraged and frightened by what happened. It's always hard when these things strike very close to home, in a place where one works, even though we're all well exposed to these issues, being in the medical field. The people are basically willing to cooperate, looking forward to going through being tested, and being prophalaxed (ph) as necessary.

CARROLL: Because you are dealing with people here who in the medical field, do you feel as though there is less concern, in terms of other places?

WALTZMAN: That's an interested question, and I think people are pretty realistic that it's very likely that some just casual thing in the building is going to cause any kind of exposure, so, you know, I think that people are calm.

(INTERRUPTED BY LIVE EVENT)

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