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CNN Saturday Morning News
Health Officials Continue Retracing Steps of Anthrax Victim
Aired October 06, 2001 - 10:54 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: More now on that rather disturbing story this week from Florida. Health investigators continue retracing the steps of a man who died from an infection of anthrax on Friday afternoon. CNN's Mark Potter now with more from Atlantis, Florida.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARK POTTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At the home of the victim in Lantana, Florida, investigators from the FBI and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention remove household items for testing. The question, how was 63-year-old Robert Stevens exposed to anthrax? It is old-fashioned detective work, what one official calls "shoe leather public health."
The case began early Tuesday, between 2:00 and 2:30 a.m., when Stevens' wife brings him to this emergency room in Atlantis, near West Palm Beach. He has a high fever, is confused and vomiting. Dr. Larry Bush, an infectious disease specialist arrives on the scene that morning.
DR. LARRY BUSH, INFECTIOUS DISEASE SPECIALIST: The emergency room had done a spinal tap before I got there. And when we looked at the spinal fluid under the microscope, the organisms looked like those type of organisms that would fit into the class of a family where bacillus anthrax would be.
POTTER: That afternoon, the Palm Beach County Health Department is alerted, and cultures are shipped to a state laboratory. Immediately, county health investigators mobilize.
DR. JEAN MALECKI, PALM BEACH COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT: I had a full team of four epidemiological specialists with me. We interviewed the wife at length, for many, many hours. I personally reviewed all the medical information here.
POTTER: By 8:30 Thursday morning, state officials confirmed the anthrax diagnosis, and the CDC notifies Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson in Washington. Thompson immediately tells National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, who then alerts President Bush.
The White House is concerned, in part, this might be a national security issue because some of the hijackers had recently spent time in South Florida. Thursday afternoon, when the CDC lab confirms the diagnosis, Secretary Thompson meets with the president, and it is decided that Thompson will go public with the news, to reassure Americans that an isolated case of anthrax has been found and that it is not contagious.
TOMMY THOMPSON, HHS SECRETARY: There is no evidence of terrorism.
POTTER: Meanwhile, a command center is set up in West Palm Beach, and more than 50 investigators are dispatched in teams of five or six to try to retrace the victim's steps and to determine if others have been infected.
(on camera): The investigation also includes parts of North Carolina where the victim vacationed. Health officials say the reassuring news is they have found no other cases of anthrax, and say they doubt they will find any more. But they also warn it is entirely possible they may never learn how and where Robert Stevens contracted anthrax.
Mark Potter, CNN, Atlantis, Florida.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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