Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Sunday Morning

New Anthrax Incidents Reported in Florida

Aired October 14, 2001 - 07:01   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.
DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: More now on our top story, the anthrax scare. New anthrax incidents are being reported in Florida, New York and Nevada, heightening the nationwide concern about the bacteria. In Florida, a lawyer for American Media in Boca Raton told the Associated Press that five more employees of the tabloid publishing company have tested positive for anthrax exposure. The FBI and Centers for Disease Control will not confirm the report.

In New York, health officials are investigating a possible anthrax infection in a second NBC News employee. An assistant to anchor Tom Brokaw is already being treated for anthrax exposure.

And in Nevada, a third round of tests now confirms a suspicious letter delivered to a Microsoft office in Reno, Nevada contained anthrax bacteria.

We have several reports for you on this story. CNN's John Zarrella is in Boca Raton where the only anthrax death has happened. And CNN's Jason Carol is standing by for us with a live report in New York.

And we'll start with you Jason. Good morning.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: All right, good morning to you Donna. Well, I can tell you that late Saturday, Mayor Giuliani said that authorities have identified the source of anthrax that infected that NBC employee that you were talking about, the assistant to Tom Brokaw. Now, initially, authorities were focusing on a letter that was postmarked on September 25. That letter again was addressed to Tom Brokaw, received by one of his assistants.

Now, the mayor says that authorities have identified a second letter postmarked on September 18. That letter coming from Trenton, New Jersey. That letter has tested positive for anthrax.

Now, the NBC employee, Tom Brokaw's assistant, who was infected with a cutaneous form of anthrax -- that is a skin infection; it is treatable normally with antibiotics. The health department, as you said though, is now investigating the possibility of another case of cutaneous anthrax also here at NBC. It appears that both of the employees, the NBC employees, handled that letter that was postmarked on September 18.

Late yesterday, Mayor Giuliani did come out and he did give more details about how the woman, the assistant for Tom Brokaw is being treated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUDY GIULIANI (R), MAYOR OF NEW YORK CITY: The postmark that appears to be the 18th of September that was sent to Tom Brokaw, that letter was tested last night and it turns out to be positive to anthrax or at least traces of anthrax. So the letter itself, when tested, although there's no powder left, appears to have had -- it appears to have contained anthrax.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: Health officials and NBC administrators here at headquarters here at NBC have actually set up a clinic here at NBC for the employees so they can come in and get tested. We are told that so far 350 employees have tested. Most of them working up on the third floor. All this being done as a precautionary step. The mayor says that he wants to calm fears here in a city where fear is already -- there is fear among already so many people here.

Right now, what I want to do is turn it over to my colleague, John Zarrella who is standing by live in Boca Raton, Florida with more on what's happening there -- John.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jason, thanks very much. Well, this morning, there are of course, unconfirmed reports and we must stress they are unconfirmed of five additional anthrax exposure cases. In fact, the front page of just about every one of the morning papers here in South Florida says it -- "AMI, American Media Inc.: Blood Reveals Five More."

What happened was that late yesterday, you had officials from the company as well as employees coming out saying that blood tests -- now blood tests were given to 300 of the AMI employees who worked in the building behind me and the reports coming out are that they have five cases of anthrax exposure as a result of those blood tests. But federal health officials are stressing that it is a preliminary test, that there are no conclusive results. That what happened was that antibodies were found in the blood.

Now, antibodies are germ fighters but they could be present fighting any sort of germs not necessarily anthrax. But officials with the company did come out and publicly say that they believed or they were told that it was exposure to anthrax. Health officials say they're going back. They're doing additional testing. More blood tests will need to be made in order to confirm whether it was in fact anthrax exposure. We may get some more results later in the afternoon today here on these blood tests.

One of the things that we are also being told is that country health officials opened up yesterday to give blood tests voluntarily to the other 700 people who visited this building between August 1 and the time it was closed. It was a voluntary basis. It wasn't widely publicized, but only 30 people showed up for those blood tests. Remember, in all, there were a 1,000 nasal swabs given to the individuals who came to this building between August 1 and the time it was shut down by the FBI -- a 1,000 total, 300 employees and 700 other people. The 300 employees were the ones that had been given the blood tests. The other 700, those who only visited the building only got nasal swabs.

County health officials say they'll revisit the program later in the week to see if they want to continue to offer the blood tests on a voluntary basis to those other 700 people. They say it's not mandatory. It's not necessary if the nasal swabs came back negative. But again, the possibility that five more people were exposed to anthrax. But also, again, federal officials, health officials, are insisting it is important to note that no one is sick.

This is John Zarrella reporting live from Boca Raton, Florida.

KELLEY: Hey John, before you go, can you tell us what the deal is on the antibiotics then? The extra five who have been exposed now, they've undoubtedly started them on the antibiotics but what about the other 300 employees or the other visitors who chose to get tested? Have they put them on preventive antibiotics?

ZARRELLA: Right, what happened was that everybody who went in, they were all given Cipro. Anybody who came in was given Cipro. They tested a 1,000 people with the nasal swabs but they were all given Cipro to go onto this program where they take two pills a day. So they were already on antibiotics so that would more than likely, health officials say, prevent them from coming down with the disease itself even if the bacteria is present in their bodies -- Donna.

KELLEY: OK, John Zarrella in Boca Raton, thanks very much, along with Jason Carroll in New York.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com