Fearful US bombards mail with electron beams

29 Oct, 2001 11:02 AM3 mins to read

By GEOFF CUMMING and AGENCIES

The United States Postal Service has begun decontaminating Washington mail with electron beam Machines as fears grow that more anthrax-laced letters are in the system.

The service ordered eight machines to kill the lethal bacteria as the number of anthrax cases reached 14, including three deaths.

The national Centre for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed that a female New Jersey postal worker, admitted to hospital last week, has the serious inhalation version of anthrax.

Spores have now been found at mail sorting facilities for the US Congress and Senate, the White House, the State Department, the CIA and the Justice Department.

At the Supreme Court, spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said about 400 employees and users of the facility were tested last weekend for anthrax exposure after the discovery of spores.

Thousands of postal workers and others who deal with large amounts of mail are taking preventive antibiotics.

"There may be other letters that are stuck in the system," said White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card. "We are asking people to be very careful."

Two postal workers from the Brentwood Rd sorting centre in Washington - workplace of two who died last week - and a State Department mailroom worker remain in serious condition in hospital.

At least five New Jersey postal workers have suspected or confirmed cases of anthrax.

Investigators have yet to determine how the spores were disseminated and the extent of the spread.

Doubts that the letter sent to Tom Daschle, leader of the Senate, could be the sole source of the bacteria have grown with each new report.

Dr Jeffrey Koplan, of the federal laboratory coordinating responses to the disease, said it would be virtually impossible for the Daschle letter to have spread the spores to letter-handling buildings in Washington, Maryland and Virginia.

A spokesman for the United States Capitol Police said: "We don't know if we have cross-contamination from the original Daschle letter or if there is another letter out there that we need to be concerned about."

Investigators have converged on Trenton, New Jersey, where three contaminated letters were postmarked.

More than 10,000 people who may have been exposed to the bacteria have been advised to start taking antibiotics as a precaution.

Authorities initially prescribed cipro, but are now using doxycycline because the anthrax strain is sensitive to a wide range of antibiotics.

They also want to bolster the public's confidence in other drugs.

Using a single antibiotic for a long time can increase the likelihood of the bug developing resistance.

Dr. Ivan Walks, Washington's chief health officer, said: "We have not put this many people on this number of concentrated antibiotics, if not ever, in certainly a long period of time."

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