Two new anthrax cases comfirmed
US officials are today trying to calm mounting anthrax fears after two more cases of the desease were confirmed.
Investigators were redoubling their efforts to find the person or group behind the attacks after it was revealed all three anthrax outbreaks in America have now been linked to the same strain of the deadly spores.
The two new cases involve a male postal worker in New Jersey, who is thought to have handled a letter laced with anthrax, and a female secretary at the New York Post newspaper, who is back at work after being treated with antibiotics.
New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani was among the leaders urging calm, with his city the worst affected by the attacks.
‘‘I would just say to everyone to stay calm,’’ he said.
‘‘We’ve had a week of this with four cases and everyone is doing well. We are dealing with it.’’
And American health secretary Tommy Thompson also urged caution and said:
‘‘The situation is being dealt with properly.’’
Scientists have found the spores from the outbreak in Florida, and in the letters laced with the infection sent to NBC newscaster Tom Brokaw and Tom Daschle, leader of the majority Democrats in the Senate, were of the same strain.
And the diagnosis of a case of anthrax involving a New Jersey postal worker is the second of its type, with the FBI using it to help narrow the search for the perpetrators.
Detectives already know the exact post box where the two letters they have identified were mailed from, but have yet to reveal its location publicly.
The two new diagnoses followed confirmation that a British woman in New York is suffering from anthrax. Claire Fletcher, 27, is an assistant to CBS newsreader Dan Rather and is on antibiotics after becoming infected.
American homeland security director Tom Ridge revealed investigators had found the strains from New York, Washington and Florida were the same and said: ‘‘The tests to date have concluded that the strains are indistinguishable.
‘‘There are 30 items that are checked to make the comparison. The tests to date also have shown that these strains have not been weaponised.’’
Weaponising anthrax means refining it so the size of the spores maximises the likelihood of infection.
And Mr Ridge said of the anthrax: ‘‘It does appear that it was from the same batch, but it may have been distributed to different individuals to infect different communities.’’
In New York, anthrax had already been diagnosed in Tom Brokaw’s assistant, 38-year-old Erin O’Connor, the seven-month-old son of a producer at broadcaster ABC and a woman postal worker in New Jersey.
In Florida one man, British-born journalist Bob Stevens, has died and one of his colleagues at tabloid magazine publisher American Media Incorporated, mailroom worker Ernesto Blanco, is ill.
In Washington, the number of people confirmed as having been exposed to anthrax fell from 31 to 28 after more tests were carried out, while none have developed the infection.
In New York, Miss Fletcher’s best friend, Kim Akhtar, who works in the same office, said everyone had been shocked at the diagnosis, but were now coping.
‘‘She is doing well,’’ said Ms Akhtar, who is from London but has worked at CBS in New York for the past five years.
‘‘We work together at CBS and we are friends. She is really fine, she really is, and we are all doing well. We were all shocked, but we are over that now.’’
And the landlord of her £1200-a-month refurbished two bedroom flat in New York’s fashionable Theatre District, just yards from Times Square, told of his shock.
Luis Gonzalez, her landlord for the past two years, said: ‘‘She is one of the finest people in life. When you meet her, she always asks, ‘How are you?’ She’s just a beautiful person, inside and out.’’
