ABC employee's baby infected with anthrax

4:00 pm

NEW YORK - The baby boy of an employee of the ABC television network has tested positive for skin anthrax.

The case comes just days after an employee of NBC became ill with anthrax, a potentially deadly bacteria that could be used as a biological warfare agent.

"The baby has responded well to treatment and we are very hopeful the baby will make a full and complete recovery," New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani told a news conference, after the announcement by ABC .

An anthrax scare has gripped the United States since one person died in Florida earlier this month in the wake of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon that killed more than 5,400 people.

Authorities said they planned to scour several other major US media outlets in New York in what ABC News president David Westin called "an abundance of caution."

"We are confident the authorities have this well in hand," Westin said.

"There is nothing dangerous here at all," Giuliani said at the news conference held at ABC in New York.

The anthrax scare hit Capitol Hill earlier yesterday when a powdery substance found in a letter opened in Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle's office tested positive in preliminary examinations for the potentially deadly bacteria.

At the White House, President Bush said after news of the Capitol Hill scare "there may be a possible link" between this and other recent US anthrax cases and Islamic militant Osama bin Laden, accused of masterminding last month's attacks.

- REUTERS

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