Fourth anthrax case raises alarm in United States

By RUPERT CORNWELL

WASHINGTON - Panic about fresh terrorist outrages has spread across the US after a woman employee of the NBC television network in New York tested positive for anthrax - the fourth reported occurrence this month of a disease which could be used in a terrorist biological warfare attack.

The news, which came the day after the FBI issued a general warning about possible terrorist attacks on US targets either at home or abroad this weekend, jangled nerves everywhere, but nowhere more than on Wall Street, where shares dropped sharply in the minutes after the news emerged.

The price of gold, a traditional refuge in times of uncertainty, jumped $US3 an ounce after the attack. America's media establishment was also in a state approaching panic. Part of 30 Rockfeller Plaza -- where NBC Nightly News, on which the woman worked is headquartered -- was sealed off after the outcome of the test became known.

In what could be a related incident, the New York Times newspaper reportedly received a package containing suspicious powder yesterday. CBS News also closed down its mailroom as a precaution, and CNN said it was tightening security.

Law enforcement officials across the US are on the highest alert, after unspecified but credible threats of retaliation for the bombing campaign in Afghanistan which began on Sunday.

But the FBI said it saw 'no connection' between the terrorist attacks of September 11 against New York and Washington, and the NBC case. Officials said the origins of the New York anthrax was unknown. But they stressed there appeared to be no link with the three cases so far reported in Florida, one of which caused the death of Robert Stevens, a 63-year-old British born photo editor a week ago. Two other employees of American Media Inc, which published various supermarket tabloids at Boca Raton, Florida, tested positive for the disease, but are in no danger. Those cases are assumed to be of criminal origin, but no link has been established with the September 11 hijackers - even though some of these had expressed interest in crop duster aircraft, and had taken flight training nearby in Florida.

Mr Stevens died of the rare but most deadly respiratory form of anthrax. The NBC employee has apparently contracted the more common cutaneous form of the disease, often brought about by contact with tissue or hide of infected animals.

Inhalation anthrax, is almost always fatal. By contrast, the cutaneous form of anthrax is fatal in only 20 per of cases if left untreated.

According to officials, the case began with the arrival of a suspicious letter at NBC News two weeks ago, containing some white powder. After the woman opened it, she reported the incident and was tested for infection. The powder itself was sent for testing but revealed no trace of anthrax. For many days the woman too tested negative, but then developed a skin lesion.

After retesting of samples at the Centres for Disease Control, a biopsy report came back positive for cutaneous anthrax. She was immediately put on antibiotics, and NBC executives yesterday said she was in no danger, and would make a full recovery.

NBC staff were told over the office intercom of what had happened, and given the choice of leaving the building. More than half the employees left, one of them said.

At a hastily convened news conference, Rudolph Giuliani the New York Mayor, said the sealing off of part of the Rockefeller Plaza building had been done 'from an excess of caution.' He declared the chances 'very good' that the infection had been contained, since any other case would have come to light by now.

Moving to reassure the country, the Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said there was "no proof whatsoever" that the case of anthrax found at NBC News was terrorism. But he said President Bush was being kept informed.

This latest case in New York is especially unsettling because of where it happened -- not in faraway Florida, but in the city that took the brunt of the September 11 attacks, and is the heart of the US financial and media industries.

"This was bad for the market because if there's a broader terrorist threat, it makes the battle against terrorism a lot closer to home, and it shakes consumer confidence a great deal," Robert Cohen, chief trader at Credit Suisse First Boston, said.

In London police and anti terrorist officers have been placed on heightened security alert following reports that Britain was being targeted by Islamic extremists. Sources have told the Independent that there is a "non-site specific" threat aimed at the United Kingdom, although no individual targets have been identified.

But as rumours of a possible attack continue to circulate the police have placed an extra 1,500 officers onto the streets of London to tightened security and reassure the public.

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