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CNN Live Sunday

Anthrax-Tainted Letters Could Still Be In System

Aired October 28, 2001 - 18:12   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: The American public has learned about anthrax in the last month, but so, too, have health officials. CNN medical correspondent Rhonda Rowland has more on the investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RHONDA ROWLAND, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's been almost one month since the first case of anthrax was discovered and scientists are admitting how little they know about the bacteria.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH: What we are learning right now is that the standard textbook characteristics of this, namely opening a letter and it comes up into you and you get inhalation anthrax, finding that people are getting inhalation anthrax in a secondary and maybe even a tertiary site away from where the well-documented anthrax letter was. That is something that was not suspected.

ROWLAND: At the same time, administration officials say it's possible anthrax-tainted letters could still be stuck in the system.

ANDREW CARD, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: Our postal service, the FBI working very hard to understand all they can and we are asking people to be very careful.

ROWLAND: Still, the U.S. postal service wants to reassure the public there's no evidence yet of any new anthrax.

JOHN NOLAN, DEPUTY POSTMASTER GENERAL: Since this started we have delivered the equivalent of six pieces of mail to every man woman and child on the face of the earth. Three pieces of mail have shown up with anthrax. ROWLAND: But to be on the safe side, health officials are urging many mail room workers in Washington area businesses to start preventive antibiotic therapy. Instead of Cipro, these workers will be offered another antibiotic, doxicycline of which the government has plenty.

DR. MICHAEL OSTERHOLM, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA: We have got to get America to understand that they don't have to live in the Cipro world any more. That as long as we are monitoring the strains, and have the antibiotics they can be used effectively and used the same way that we use ciprofloxacin. ROWLAND: While everyone's mind is on anthrax, health officials are urging the public to think about the flu and preventing it.

(on camera): An alert from top health officials: it's time to get your flu shot. Since symptoms of the flu and inhalation anthrax are similar, getting more people vaccinated against the flu will cut down on emergency room visits and confusion over what the diagnosis really is.

Rhonda Rowland, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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