Health officials confirm inhalation anthrax in Hamilton postal worker

10/28/2001

By RALPH SIEGEL
Associated Press Writer

TRENTON, N.J. - State health department officials confirmed Sunday that one of two female postal workers hospitalized with a serious respiratory illness has inhalation anthrax.

A second worker is classified as a "suspected case" based on preliminary tests.

Health department spokeswoman Laura Otterbourg said the postal worker with the confirmed case is improving.

It was not immediately clear if they were being treated with antibiotics.

Two other postal workers at the Hamilton regional processing center plus a letter carrier who worked in nearby Ewing are being successfully treated for confirmed or suspected cases of skin anthrax.

The Hamilton office, which handles mail from 46 local post offices in central New Jersey, processed at least three anthrax-laced letters addressed to NBC news anchor Tom Brokaw, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and the New York Post. State officials believe the mail handler with the confirmed case was infected by the Daschle letter.

Also Sunday, the first testing and antibiotic treatment was provided for private citizens who as mail couriers routinely entered the nonpublic area of the contaminated post office in Hamilton to drop off or pick up mail for large corporate facilities. About 600 people fall into that category.

Public areas used by customers have tested negative for anthrax. But 19 of 59 test sites were positive for anthrax inside the massive mail-processing area, which receives letters and packages from parts of seven counties.

City officials said a Trenton firefighter hospitalized Saturday as a precaution against anthrax exposure is not actually ill. They said he had not been in contact with a contaminated site.