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CNN Live Sunday

Health Officials Confirm New Jersey Postal Worker Has Been Diagnosed With Inhalation Anthrax

Aired October 28, 2001 - 17:17   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: Health officials today confirm a New Jersey postal worker has been diagnosed with inhalation anthrax, that's the rarest and most fatal form of the bacteria. The employee was one of two from a mail processing facility in Hamilton township suspected of having the disease.

This latest case brings the total number of confirmed infections to 13. CNN's medical correspondent Rhonda Rowland is in Washington with the latest on the anthrax threat for us. Hi, Rhonda.

RHONDA ROWLAND, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, hello, Donna. And just to further clarify, the new -- the CDC has been classifying this New Jersey postal worker as a suspected case of anthrax. And today, they changed that classification to a confirmed case.

And here in Washington, anthrax contamination has spread to 17 locations in a dozen buildings. Government officials are now working with a hypothesis that there may be more than one anthrax-tainted letter.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREW CARD, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: I have no reason to believe that our postal service is in jeopardy of delivering the mail, but we are being very sensitive about those places where the anthrax has been found, and there may be other letters that are stuck in the system with the -- I mean, at the Capitol right over my shoulder or maybe down at the White House. But we are working hard to make sure that any contamination is confined and that we can deal with it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROWLAND: Still, the Postal Service and health officials want to reassure the public, the general public, that their chance of receiving anthrax-tainted mail at home that could cause harm is very, very low.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NIH: So, therefore, the idea about somebody getting in the mail and saying, "well, this is a letter that happened to be in the same facility where there was a problem," there is at this point no evidence that anyone has gotten or is getting infected from that type of exposure. So it's because of that that you don't make that what might be a logical extrapolation of that letters that are coming out to individual citizens are going to be threats.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROWLAND: While many people have been thinking about anthrax and antibiotics, health officials instead want people to turn their attention to the flu and preventing it by getting a flu shot.

And Donna, this is very important, since symptoms of the flu and inhalation anthrax are very similar, and they don't want to cause a lot of confusion.

KELLEY: You bet. Good point. Rhonda Rowland, our medical correspondent, thank you.

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