Posted on 11/09/2001 7:48:13 PM PST by Freedom of Speech Wins
Friday November 9 5:14 PM ET
New York City Begins Testing Subway for Anthrax
By Patrick Rizzo
NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani (news - web sites) said on Friday that in an ``excess of caution'' the city has begun systematically testing its subway system, one of the world's most extensive, for traces of the potential germ-warfare agent anthrax.
``There is subway testing going on and people should understand that the reason for testing the air and other things in the subway is to make sure that there is no problem,'' the mayor said.
``There is no specific information that is causing our doing this, it's just out of excess of caution,'' he said. ``People should get used to that because we will probably do that on a regular basis and do that over the course of the next couple of months as we are in a period of heightened alert.'' The mayor would not specify which lines running on the city's approximately 250 miles of subway routes would be tested. More than 4.3 million people ride the subway system every day.
He said that the city already had tested some stations sporadically, prior to major events like baseball games.
The city's health commissioner, Neal Cohen, said the focus would be on routes traveled by the eight people in New York diagnosed with anthrax since the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon (news - web sites).
Seven people in New York -- three at the New York Post tabloid, two at NBC News, one at ABC News and one at CBS News -- have been diagnosed with skin anthrax and another person, a hospital worker, has died from the more deadly pulmonary form of the disease.
Manhattan hospital worker and Bronx resident Kathy Nguyen, 61, became on Oct. 31 the fourth person to die of inhalation anthrax in the United States. The way Nguyen contracted the disease has puzzled health authorities, who have been tracing her steps over the two weeks prior to her death for any clues.
``We'll be looking at the stops on her subway line,'' said Cohen.
Giuliani also said on Friday that health officials suspect there may have been another case of skin anthrax at a media company in the city that has not already been affected.
``We have another suspected or possible anthrax case. But it may not turn out to be anthrax. The person works for a media company,'' the mayor said.
The mayor would not identify the media company. Health officials said the person may have become infected in late September, about the same time that other people in the city came down with the illness.
Giuliani said the person took antibiotics and has made a full recovery.
My friends down there say the air is godawful.
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