Posted on 11/21/2001 4:18:28 AM PST by McGruff
Definitive test results released on Wednesday confirmed a 94-year-old Connecticut woman contracted inhalation anthrax, the first case of the deadly disease in the United States in three weeks.
Connecticut Gov. John Rowland said in a round of morning television shows he had received the final anthrax test results from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) early on Wednesday.
``The CDC test came back positive this morning,'' Rowland told ABC's ``Good Morning America'' show.
The latest case, along with news on Tuesday that the offices of two more senators in Washington tested positive for traces of anthrax, could revive fears of bioterrorism following the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.
The Connecticut woman, who lived alone and had limited mobility, was listed in critical condition at Griffin Hospital in Derby, Connecticut, hospital officials said.
Since early October, four people have died and 13 have been infected with anthrax, a livestock disease that can be used as a germ warfare agent.
All of those infected so far have been associated with the mail, the media or Capitol Hill, except for New York hospital worker Kathy Nguyen, a Vietnamese immigrant who died on Oct. 31.
Rowland said there was no indication how the 94-year-old woman had contracted the disease but that authorities were closely looking at the mail system and that postal employees would be given antibiotics as a preventive measure.
``We will treat as many as 1,500 postal employees as a precaution without any true evidence that it came from the post office,'' he said.
Rowland said authorities had checked the woman's local post office as late as Nov. 11 and had found no problems there.
``Now we begin to believe that something possibly could have happened after the 11th. But we still have no evidence it's from the mail. It's a mystery to us but the FBI and the CDC are going to continue to work on it,'' he said.
LIVED ALONE
The 94-year-old woman, who lives alone in the farming community of Oxford, Connecticut, was admitted to the hospital last Friday with symptoms corresponding to pneumonia.
``We've been unable to determine exactly how she was affected,'' Rowland told CBS's ``The Early Show.'' ``Right now she is in critical condition. When she first came to the hospital she was somewhat alert, but is in pretty bad shape right now.''
State and local police health officials along with FBI agents were testing the woman's home and interviewing relatives and acquaintances to determine how she might have contracted anthrax.
``It's hard to believe that going to the beauty salon or whatever other trips she has made could have infected her. We will continue to look at the mail issue and see if there is any connection,'' the governor said.
Anthrax first surfaced in Florida in October and raised fears of biological warfare in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 suicide-hijack attacks on New York and Washington.
Investigators have still not determined who is behind the attacks. But Attorney General John Ashcroft has indicated that authorities are leaning toward a domestic source.
Anybody know what part of Oxford she's from?
Do social security checks come out of Washinton DC? Anyone know?
This one is indeed troubling. We need to know exactly what "limited mobility" means to the writer of this piece. Does it mean she doesn't have a car and stopped driving a few years ago but is still relatively active otherwise, with regular trips to local places with friends or neighbors?
Or does it mean she never got out of her house except when her relative(s) took her to the doctor or beauty salon once a month and they brought all her living needs to her? (groceries, toiletries, etc.) We can't accurately assess this one until we know more facts about her daily living activities.
If it's the latter, then we have a problem that everyone needs to really be alert to and start taking extreme (to me) precautions with their mail. If this elderly woman got anthrax through cross-contaminated mail, then a minimum precaution would be to set up an outside "holding place" for bills and a garbage can for immediate disposal of junk mail.
I guess if you really wanted to be cautious, you could add a box of gloves and medical face masks to your list of "mail opening accessories."
The news comes a week after a Derby man was arrested on charges that he sent letters threatening anthrax exposure to several state and federal offices.
Amir Omerovic, 27, is charged with sending letters to the governor's office, the Judicial Review Council and U.S. Coast Guard offices in Hartford, and to a U.S. Marine Corps office in Danbury.
The FBI said at the time that there was no evidence Omerovic had access to anthrax. The letters did not contain any white powders or other suspicious substance.
Rowland said law enforcement officials were investigating to determine if there is any link to that case.
WOW, verrrrrrry interesting!
Thanks for the ping, Fred!
Just arrest all of her relatives and the case will be solved!.
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