UPDATE - New Jersey probes possible new anthrax case
Date: 26-Oct-01
Country: USA
A woman employed at a main U.S. postal processing and distribution center in Hamilton Township, near Trenton, was hospitalized with symptoms compatible with two other suspected inhalation cases, said state epidemiologist Eddy Bresnitz.
But officials held back from officially declaring the woman a suspected anthrax case, saying preliminary medical tests for the presence of anthrax bacteria had proved negative.
"Right now we have no laboratory evidence that she has anthrax," Bresnitz told a news conference.
"However, because of the fact she was a postal worker who worked in the Hamilton Township facility, she worked in the time frame when we already had other cases, she worked in a facility known to have environmental contamination with anthrax ... to our mind, this is a person who could have inhalational anthrax."
On Tuesday, another woman who worked at the same facility, which processed anthrax-laden letters sent to Congress and two New York media companies, became the state's first suspected case of inhalation anthrax. She remained hospitalized in stable and improving condition yesterday.
Two other post office employees in Trenton have tested positive for skin anthrax, and another was believed to have been infected with the milder skin version of the disease.
George DiFernando, commissioner of the state Department of Health and Senior Services, also announced yesterday that the state was expanding its recommended course of preventive antibiotic treatments from 10 to 60 days for more than 1,000 postal workers employed at the Hamilton facility and at a satellite office in nearby West Trenton.