it's getting worse
By Rick Weiss
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, October 8, 2001; 1:22 PM
Health and law enforcement officials said this morning they have identified a second Florida man who has become infected with an inhaled anthrax. The person worked in the same building as Bob Stevens, who died of the rare disease on Friday, raising new suspicions that the building may have been the target of a covert bioterrorism attack.
The FBI said it was aggressively investigating both cases, which constitute the only two instances of inhalation anthrax to occur in the United States in the past 25 years. Officials said that for now they were sticking to their initial presumption that the cases are unexplained flukes. But experts from the FBI and the Centers for Disease Control said it was extremely unlikely that two such cases would occur so close together in time and space unless they were the result of an intentional act of contamination.
Authorities did not identify the second victim except to say it was someone who worked in the same Lantana, Fla., building where Stevens worked as a photo editor for the supermarket tabloid the Sun. A Miami television station tentatively identified the second victim as Ernie Blanco and said he was being treated at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami.
Stevens checked into an Atlantis, Fla., hospital early last Tuesday morning and died of anthrax Friday.
Tests over the weekend indicated the presence of anthrax bacteria in the nasal passages of the new victim. But it remained unclear as of Monday morning whether that person was exhibiting symptoms of the disease.
Law enforcement and health authorities, including experts from the FBI and the CDC, have sealed the building and are conducting further tests today. CDC officials said this morning that they had found evidence of the deadly bacteria in the building, and had recommended that everyone who had recently worked in the structure report to a nearby public health center to begin a protective regimen of antibiotics.
Anthrax is a rare bacterial disease that kills about 80 percent of those who become infected through inhalation. It has long been considered a prime choice as a weapon of biological terrorism because it is so deadly and relatively easy to grow in large quantities. It cannot, however, be spread from person to person.
The Soviet Union and Iraq both are known to have made anthrax for use in weapons, though neither has apparently ever delivered such warheads. In theory, the bacteria could be sprayed in powder form from a low-flying airplane or delivered to an air circulation inlet of a building.
The spores can cause disease anywhere from two days to two months or so after being inhaled. Once symptoms arise – high fever, cough, and then delerium – death generally occurs with a few days. Antibiotics including doxycyclin and ciprofloxacin are effective if taken before symptoms appear, but are of far less value once the person falls ill. The one protective vaccine licensed for use in this country is available only in very limited supplies and is being reserved for use by the military. No vaccine doses are commercially available in this country at this time.
The contaminated building in Florida is home to the Sun and its sister publication the Globe, tabloids that have had several inflammatory cover stories about Osama bin Laden in recent weeks.
© 2001 The Washington Post Company
By Rick Weiss
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, October 8, 2001; 1:22 PM
Health and law enforcement officials said this morning they have identified a second Florida man who has become infected with an inhaled anthrax. The person worked in the same building as Bob Stevens, who died of the rare disease on Friday, raising new suspicions that the building may have been the target of a covert bioterrorism attack.
The FBI said it was aggressively investigating both cases, which constitute the only two instances of inhalation anthrax to occur in the United States in the past 25 years. Officials said that for now they were sticking to their initial presumption that the cases are unexplained flukes. But experts from the FBI and the Centers for Disease Control said it was extremely unlikely that two such cases would occur so close together in time and space unless they were the result of an intentional act of contamination.
Authorities did not identify the second victim except to say it was someone who worked in the same Lantana, Fla., building where Stevens worked as a photo editor for the supermarket tabloid the Sun. A Miami television station tentatively identified the second victim as Ernie Blanco and said he was being treated at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami.
Stevens checked into an Atlantis, Fla., hospital early last Tuesday morning and died of anthrax Friday.
Tests over the weekend indicated the presence of anthrax bacteria in the nasal passages of the new victim. But it remained unclear as of Monday morning whether that person was exhibiting symptoms of the disease.
Law enforcement and health authorities, including experts from the FBI and the CDC, have sealed the building and are conducting further tests today. CDC officials said this morning that they had found evidence of the deadly bacteria in the building, and had recommended that everyone who had recently worked in the structure report to a nearby public health center to begin a protective regimen of antibiotics.
Anthrax is a rare bacterial disease that kills about 80 percent of those who become infected through inhalation. It has long been considered a prime choice as a weapon of biological terrorism because it is so deadly and relatively easy to grow in large quantities. It cannot, however, be spread from person to person.
The Soviet Union and Iraq both are known to have made anthrax for use in weapons, though neither has apparently ever delivered such warheads. In theory, the bacteria could be sprayed in powder form from a low-flying airplane or delivered to an air circulation inlet of a building.
The spores can cause disease anywhere from two days to two months or so after being inhaled. Once symptoms arise – high fever, cough, and then delerium – death generally occurs with a few days. Antibiotics including doxycyclin and ciprofloxacin are effective if taken before symptoms appear, but are of far less value once the person falls ill. The one protective vaccine licensed for use in this country is available only in very limited supplies and is being reserved for use by the military. No vaccine doses are commercially available in this country at this time.
The contaminated building in Florida is home to the Sun and its sister publication the Globe, tabloids that have had several inflammatory cover stories about Osama bin Laden in recent weeks.
© 2001 The Washington Post Company
