Tuesday, October 9, 2001

Anthrax death becomes criminal investigation
By Amanda Riddle
Associated Press

BOCA RATON, Fla. — Amid increasing fear over biological warfare, Monday the FBI took over the investigation of a Florida man’s anthrax death after the germ was found in the nose of a co-worker and on a computer keyboard in their office.

“We regard this as an investigation that could become a clear criminal investigation,” Attorney General John Ashcroft said during a news conference in Washington. “We don’t have enough information to know whether this could be related to terrorism or not.”

The FBI sealed off the Boca Raton office building housing the supermarket tabloid The Sun, where the men worked. How the bacterial spores got into the newspaper’s office is still under investigation.

Ashcroft said the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta was providing expertise, but Florida Lt. Gov. Frank Brogan confirmed that the FBI is “in control of the investigation.”

Anthrax cannot be spread from person to person, but all 300 employees in the building — and anyone who spent more than an hour in the building since Aug. 1 — were advised to visit the Palm Beach County health agency.

“I feel nervous. I’m worried for everybody,” said David Hayes, an editor for the Star, another tabloid headquartered in the building.

He was among more than 200 people lined up outside the health department, where employees were given antibiotics and others were tested for anthrax.

Bob Stevens, 63, a photo editor for The Sun, died Friday of inhalation anthrax, an extremely rare and lethal form of the disease. The last such death in the United States was in 1976.

On Monday, officials said another Sun employee, whose name was not released, had anthrax bacteria in his nasal passages. Relatively large anthrax spores that lodge in the upper respiratory tract are less dangerous than smaller spores that get into the lungs.

The co-worker was in stable condition at an unidentified Miami-Dade County hospital, according to health officials. He had been tested for anthrax because he happened to be in a hospital for an unrelated illness.

The man has not been diagnosed with the disease, and CDC spokeswoman Barbara Reynolds said authorities may never know whether he actually had anthrax because antibiotics may have killed it before it was detected.

David Pecker, chief executive of the tabloid’s publisher, American Media Inc., said the man worked in the mailroom.

The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks have raised fears of bioterrorism across the country, but there is particular concern about the origin of the anthrax here.

Only 18 cases of anthrax contracted through inhalation in the United States were documented in the 20th century, the most recent in 1976 in California. More common is a less serious form of anthrax contracted through the skin.

Anthrax can be contracted from farm animals or soil, though the bacterium is not normally found among wildlife or livestock in Florida. Stevens was described as an avid outdoorsman and gardener.