Anthrax Case Puzzles Investigators - No Other Cases Found, Source Remains a Mystery

LANTANA, Fla. (AP) - Relatives of a Florida man who contracted a fatal case of anthrax are being given antibiotics as a precaution and the man's co-workers have been tested and cleared, health authorities said Saturday.

Investigators are awaiting test results from soil and other specimens as they try to learn how 63-year-old Bob Stevens contracted the rare and extremely lethal inhaled form of the disease. He died Friday.

More than 50 health and law enforcement officials have fanned out across Palm Beach County to track his movements over the past two months and look for other possible cases.

"We have a long chronology of common activities we need to pursue," state epidemiologist Dr. Steven Wiersma said Saturday. "We don't have any really hot leads at this time."

No other cases of anthrax have been reported in the area. Wiersma said several of Stevens' co-workers at the supermarket tabloid The Sun have been tested, but results were negative. Also, as a precaution, close family members are being treated with antibiotics.

Officials have said there is no evidence that Stevens was the victim of terrorism. Wiersma said tests of Stevens' blood further confirmed that belief because the anthrax in the sample responded to penicillin. Anthrax developed by some countries as a biological weapon could be resistant to the antibiotic, he said.

The Sept. 11 hijackings have put many people on edge about a bioterrorism threat.

Officials believe Stevens contracted anthrax naturally in Florida. The disease can be contracted from farm animals or soil, though the bacterium is not normally found among wildlife or livestock in the state. Stevens was described as an avid outdoorsman who enjoyed fishing and gardening.

Officials are also investigating in North Carolina, where Stevens visited last month, but said the disease also is rare among animals in that state.

County medical examiners are looking over any unexplained deaths, but have not found any cases connected to anthrax. Veterinarians have been told to be on alert for animals who might have the disease, but none have turned up.

Investigators also are visiting restaurants, parks and other locations he frequented or even visited casually, Wiersma said.

Samples have been sent to labs in Miami or Jacksonville or to the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. Results could take days.

Only 18 inhalation cases in the United States were documented in the 20th century, the most recent in 1976 in California. The last anthrax case in Florida was in 1974, according to the state health department.

Stevens lived on the same street in this quiet West Palm Beach suburb for 23 years. He and his wife raised their four children, now adults, and British-born Stevens - who became a U.S. citizen - raised his American flag on holidays.

As word of his death spread through the community Friday evening, a worker at a nearly nursery school stopped by his home to drop off cards made by preschool children.

Stevens loved fishing, neighbors said, and would take his next-door-neighbor's 10-year-old boy fishing twice a month.

"It just seems like a horrible dream that you can't wake up from," said neighbor Mary Crandell, whose granddaughter had taken drawing lessons from Stevens for years.

"She's really outgoing and I contribute that to him," Crandell said. "He always had time for her."

I recieved a call last evening that Salt lake CBS local news Channel 2 ?!?!? I think.... was reporting that the murderer named atta or something to that effect was traced to within a mile of where this man with anthrax was.....

Heres what I found on an Atlanta CBS web site....

WGCL-TV, Atlanta -- Home

http://www.wgnx.com/Global/story.asp?S=497878&nav=2JWw51Di

Lantana, Fla.
Florida Man Dies After Contrascting Rare Form Of Anthrax

A 63-year-old Florida man died of the inhaled form of anthrax Friday in the first such death in the United States in 25 years. The case raised fears of a biological attack, but health officials said there is no evidence he was the victim of terrorism.

Bob Stevens, a photo editor at the supermarket tabloid The Sun, died at JFK Medical Center in Atlantis after antibiotics failed to help. He suffered kidney failure and cardiac arrest.

"It was not unexpected," said Dr. Larry Bush, an infectious-disease specialist. Federal and state health investigators emphasized that the disease is not contagious and no other cases have been reported. But they are trying to reconstruct Stevens' movements and track down the source of the disease. The FBI is involved, as is the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Anthrax has been developed by some countries as a possible biological weapon, and the terrorist attacks Sept. 11 have put many people on edge about the threat. Anthrax can also be contracted naturally, often from farm animals or soil. Stevens was described as an avid outdoorsman.

FBI, CDC and state investigators sealed off Stevens' house in Lantana and searched it for about two hours Friday. When they left, they removed the yellow crime-scene tape. They also searched his workplace.

Dr. Steven Wiersma, a state epidemiologist, said investigators took a number of items from Stevens' home, including pesticide sprays and fertilizer bottles, to see if they were contaminated.

Some in Lantana have been concerned because Mohamed Atta, believed to be one of the hijackers who destroyed the World Trade Center, had rented planes at a flight school at Palm Beach County Park Airport, according to the school's owner. Stevens' home is within a mile of the airport. Also, Atta and other Middle Eastern men are believed to have visited an airfield in Belle Glade, about 40 miles from Lantana, and asked a lot of questions about crop-dusters. In addition, some of the suspected hijackers lived at an apartment complex in Boynton Beach, about 10 miles from Lantana.

"I'm starting to get a little scared," said Louis Selitti Jr., 33, who lives across the street from Stevens. "To get something in our lungs, you have to breathe it in. Hopefully it wasn't around here."

The anthrax bacterium causes pneumonia. There is a vaccine to prevent the spread of the disease, but it is available only to the military.

The most recent previous U.S. case of anthrax was earlier this year in Texas. But that was the more common skin form, not the inhaled type of anthrax, an especially lethal and rare form in which the disease settles in the lungs.

Only 18 inhalation cases in the United States were documented in the 20th century, the most recent in 1976 in California. That case, too, was deadly. The last anthrax death in Florida occurred in 1974.

"There's no need for people to fear they are at risk," CDC Director Dr. Jeffrey P. Koplan said Thursday. But he said a release of the germ by terrorists is on the list of possibilities under investigation.

Eric Croddy, a bioterrorism expert at California's Monterey Institute, said that everything so far leads him to believe that the government is right, that Stevens caught the disease naturally and that it is an isolated case.

"He's an unfortunate, unlucky fellow," Croddy said

That's all I've found to make this story a bit more readable.......Stay Safe

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