Anthrax Found in U.S. House Complex
By LAURA MECKLER
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Anthrax was discovered in a House postal facility, officials said Saturday, as 150 FBI agents and postal inspectors swarmed a New Jersey postal route, searching for the mailbox where someone may have dropped anthrax-laced letters.
It capped a week that threw Congress into the middle of the anthrax-by-letter scare and more than doubled the number of Americans infected with the potentially deadly bacteria.
President Bush vowed to fight the "act of terror" that has killed one person, sickened seven others, forced thousands to undergo preventive treatment and frightened millions more.
The latest anthrax discovery came in the Ford House Office Building, a few blocks from the Capitol. It was found in a bundling machine that processes mail for the Longworth House Office Building, where more than 100 lawmakers including Democratic leader Dick Gephardt of Missouri have their offices.
Hazardous materials teams have methodically worked their way across Capitol Hill since anthrax was discovered in a letter sent to Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D.
"This is not an unexpected situation," said Lt. Dan Nichols, spokesman for the U.S. Capitol Police. "It is exactly why we have been performing sampling throughout the Capitol complex."
Mail for the House and Senate pass through a common postal facility before being separated and forwarded to each chamber's facilities. Nichols said it was possible the newly discovered anthrax came from a letter that had touched the Daschle letter. It was also possible that the anthrax came from another letter that has not yet surfaced, he said.
Also Saturday, local health officials in Washington said a man who works in the city's central mail handling facility, which processed the Daschle letter, was hospitalized with symptoms that suggest anthrax, though doctors do not yet know if he has the disease.
City health director Ivan Walks would not identify the man or his symptoms but said, "his clinical picture makes us suspicious."
Doctors at Inova Fairfax Hospital in suburban Virginia were conducting tests on the patient, described as in fair condition, and expected to have results late Sunday, said spokeswoman Lisa Wolfington. "We have no confirmed cases of anthrax," she said.
Speaking from China, Bush said there was no evidence that the anthrax letters were linked to the Sept. 11 attacks. But he vowed to fight whoever is behind them.
|