A MEDICAL MYSTERY
October 9, 2001
From The New York Times
"It took five days to figure out that there was anthrax in the building," one employee said. "If this is how
quickly you diagnose something like this, we're in trouble."
The employee said he believed that health authorities were being less than candid about the severity of the
confirmed anthrax cases.
"Tommy Thompson (Secretary of Health) can go on the air and say whatever he wants, but we are totally unprepared," the
employee said.
Second Case of Anthrax Leads F.B.I. Into Inquiry
By DANA CANEDY with ALEX KUCZYNSKI
EST PALM BEACH, Fla., Oct. 8 — The
F.B.I. took over the investigation of
anthrax contamination in South Florida today after
a co-worker of a man who died from the illness last
week was also found to have spores of the disease.
Law enforcement officials said privately that the
presence of anthrax in two co-workers, and on the
computer keyboard of the man who died, was
highly suspicious even though they had no evidence
of criminal or terrorist activity.
In a news conference today, Attorney General John Ashcroft, who has emphasized that the public should be
vigilant in the face of possible terror attacks, used careful language in describing the Florida case.
"We regard this as an investigation that could become a clear criminal investigation," Mr. Ashcroft said. "We
don't have enough information to know whether this could be related to terrorism or not."
"Very frankly," he continued, "we are unable to make a conclusive statement about the nature of this as either
an attack or an occurrence, absent more definitive laboratory and other investigative returns."
The F.B.I. sealed off the Boca Raton offices of American Media Inc., the supermarket tabloid publisher
where the two men worked, and public health officials had hundreds of people who worked or visited there
line up at the Palm Beach County Health Department in nearby Delray Beach to begin precautionary
antibiotics treatment and to be tested with nasal swabs for exposure to anthrax.
Last week, Tommy G. Thompson, the secretary of health and human
services, called the first case — the death of Robert Stevens, 63, a layout
editor at The Sun — an isolated one and no cause for alarm. Florida officials
continued today to describe the findings as isolated.
"This is not a public health threat to Palm Beach County in general," Warren
Newell, chairman of the county's board of commissioners said at a news
conference.
The state's top health care official, Dr. John O. Agwunobi, emphasized that
anthrax was not contagious.
"But obviously for public health reasons we have decided to evaluate, to
investigate and to protect those individuals working in that building," said Dr.
Agwunobi, the Florida secretary of health.
But even the first anthrax case caused anxiety because it occurred within
several miles of where some of the men involved in the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks had lived, taken flight lessons and looked into the purchase of a
crop-dusting plane, an indication to some that the men were considering an
act of bioterrorism.
Today, the F.B.I. led an aggressive investigation with health officials and
representatives of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
into how the American Media employees came in contact with the anthrax
bacteria.
Spores were detected in the nasal cavity of Ernesto Blanco, a 73-year- old
mail supervisor at The Sun who had been hospitalized with flu-like symptoms, Dr. Agwunobi said. Traces of
anthrax were also found on a keyboard Mr. Stevens used.
Mr. Blanco's job brought him into contact with everyone in the 67,000- square-foot American Media
building. He handled almost every piece of mail and delivered them to every person's desk, shuttling his cart
throughout the building, several employees said. Mr. Blanco was said to be in stable condition at an
undisclosed hospital, health officials said.
David Pecker, the chief executive of American Media, said the F.B.I. told the company to tell anyone who
entered the building after Aug. 1 that they must be tested. Mr. Pecker said today that the number of such
people had reached 1,000.
The controlling shareholder of American Media, which also publishes The National Enquirer, is Evercore
Capital Partners, which is led by Roger C. Altman, a deputy treasury secretary in the Clinton administration.
Several employees said F.B.I. agents asked for their computer passwords and then reviewed their computer
files and e-mail messages. They said they were also asked about temporary employees.
Some employees said F.B.I. agents were told about a student intern who, when he ended his internship
several weeks ago, sent a letter to the staff saying he had left something for people to remember him by.
Interviewed at his parents' home near Fort Lauderdale, the former intern, a 23-year-old senior at Florida
Atlantic University, said the note was simply meant to thank them. The student said he had willingly spoken
with the authorities and offered to take a polygraph test.
At the health department, employees were asked to fill out questionnaires about their activities for the past
two months and their movement in the building, specifically how often they visited the mailroom and library.
The authorities were also testing the building's ventilation system.
Tonight, law enforcement officials said they were checking each piece of mail delivered to the publication that
might have been handled by both men in a period coinciding with the incubation period for the disease. So far,
the officials said, they had not found any letters or packages that seemed suspicious.
The officials said investigators had examined luggage belonging to Mohamed Atta, a hijack ringleader, that
was recovered at Logan International Airport in Boston after the Sept. 11 attacks. But the bag had not been
contaminated with anthrax. An anonymous handwritten letter found inside the bag was also checked, and it
too was free of anthrax.
At the health department, there was the air of a company picnic gone terribly wrong, as hundreds of American
Media employees lined up in front of the building drinking Gatorade from paper cups and waiting through
patches of sun and rain showers to be seen by county health officials and F.B.I. investigators.
They left with a 15-day supply of Ciproflaxocin antibiotics. Several reporters said they were told to take
1,000 milligrams a day and to ask their doctors for prescriptions for 45 more days after that.
The employees will also be given blood tests to test for the disease, health officials said.
Some employees said the building should have been closed last week when anthrax was diagnosed in Mr.
Stevens.
"It took five days to figure out that there was anthrax in the building," one employee said. "If this is how
quickly you diagnose something like this, we're in trouble."
The employee said he believed that health authorities were being less than candid about the severity of the
confirmed anthrax cases.
"Tommy Thompson can go on the air and say whatever he wants, but we are totally unprepared," the
employee said.
Valerie Virga, a senior photo editor who is married to Steve Coz, the National Enquirer's editor in chief, said
staff members were angry about the anthrax cases having been found in their workplace.
"People want to know how it got there. Who did this. Why it's there," Ms. Virga said. "They want answers.
They're angry at the situation."
From The New York Times , Tuesday, October 9, 2001, Page 1,
National Edition |
