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New York Confirms First Case of Inhalation Anthrax
A New York hospital worker is suffering from inhalation anthrax, the first case recorded in the city, New York Health Commissioner Neal Cohen confirmed Tuesday.
"Based upon our testing, we are able to confirm that the patient is suffering from inhalation anthrax," Cohen said at a televised news conference.
Cohen had said earlier Tuesday that the 61-year-old employee of the Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital was on a respirator and "struggling for survival."
The hospital has been closed, and all staff, patients and visitors who have spent at least an hour in the facility since October 11, two weeks before the patient first began showing symptoms, to go to nearby Lennox Hospital to collect antibiotics as a precautionary measure.
Officials estimate that some 2,000 people should respond to the advice.
Steve Ostroff of the Centers for Disease Control said: "Here in New York it's the first instance of the inhalation form of the disease."
Three people including a seven-month-old boy have contracted skin anthrax in New York, all at news organizations. Another three cases are suspected but not confirmed.
Ostroff said: "The reason that this particular case is concerning is because it doesn't fit the pattern" of links to postal workers, politicians or the news media in the bioterror attack that has hit the United States, claiming three lives to date.
"All the other cases had a very clear linkage," he said.
A possible linkage, however, is that the woman, who is from the Bronx, worked in a basement supply room that was "jointly housed with the mailroom up until a few days ago," Giuliani said.
He added, however, that "there's no indication of a (contaminated) letter yet."
Cohen said other New York hospitals had been urged to take precautions in their mailrooms.
He added: "We'd like to reassure New Yorkers that the medical community is on very high alert ... and we're very focused on any early warning signs throughout the city."
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said health authorities were interviewing "300 or more people ... for investigative purposes."
The patient, who is on a respirator, "is not able to be interviewed," Giuliani said.
Of some 40 environmental samples taken at the hospital, 10 have returned negative, and the remainder were expected later Tuesday.
The results of another 27 samplings taken at the woman's home in the Bronx were also expected later Tuesday, Giuliani said.
"If all the rest come back negative we'll have to focus on the possibility that she got it somewhere else," the mayor said.
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