Palm Beach man hospitalized with anthrax
BY MANNY GARCIA And DAVID KIDWELL dkidwell@herald.com
A 63-year-old Palm Beach County man has been hospitalized in critical condition in Lantana with anthrax, state health officials confirmed today.
State of Florida and federal investigators from the Centers for Disease Control are at the Columbia JFK Medical Center are investigating, federal sources said.
The patient was identitified as Robert Stevens.
Investigators said he had recently returned from dropping his son off at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.
At a hastily arranged news conference, Florida Lt. Gov Frank Brogan said the man was first diagnosed with meningitis, but the Centers for Disease Control confirmed that it was anthrax Wednesday afternoon.
Brogan said the man may have inhaled the deadly bacteria but added that the health officials believe it is an isolated case.
Anthrax is not contagious from one person to another, and in the rare occasions when it is spread to humans, it is usually done so by infected animals.
In the United States, about one case of anthrax has been confirmed each year over the last 10 years, according to a report by Dr. Arthur M. Friedlander, chief of the Bacteriology Division in the U.S. Army Medical Corps. The bacteria is most deadly when spread by air, making it one of the most feared methods of biological attack. But such cases are rare.
In 1979 in Sverdlovsk, Russia, anthrax spores accidentally released from a military research facility reportedly killed dozens of people.
Judy Orihuela, a spokeswoman for the FBI in Miami, said agents are assisting with the investigation.
"We're monitoring the case with the CDC and Florida Health officials," Orihuela said.
At Columbia JFK Medical Center in Lantana, hospital officials declined to comment. They said information would be released later today. A security guard was posted at the entrance to the critical care unit on the hospital's second floor. A media representative escorted a reporter off the property.
So if we see a cluster of cases then we know it wasn't accidental. I hope our civil servants start telling the truth. I have some serious problems with some of the explanations we have been getting the last few days.