Anthrax scares tax health system, law enforcement

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Thousands of New Yorkers, shaken by last month's terrorist attacks and further rattled by a spate of anthrax-tainted letters, are flooding emergency rooms and phoning health authorities, taxing the city's health system, officials said Thursday.

"I know it's hard to say this, but you've got to keep saying it, that is to relax and deal with it," Mayor Rudy Giuliani said.

Nationwide, hundreds of anthrax hoaxes are straining what FBI Director Robert Mueller described as "an already overburdened enforcement system."

Their comments came as authorities confirmed fifth and sixth cases of anthrax infection -- a CBS News employee who and a New Jersey postal employee who each contracted skin anthrax. She is being treated with Cipro, an antibiotic, and is expected to make a full recovery.

Just one person has died of anthrax, a photo editor in Florida who contracted the inhalation form of the disease. More than 35 people -- most of them workers on Capitol Hill in Washington -- have tested positive for exposure to anthrax. Exposure to anthrax does not mean a person has the disease.

New York is a particular focus on the anthrax investigation because three of the nation's networks have apparently been targeted by unknown culprits. The CBS case comes in the wake of a similar incident at NBC News and the diagnosis of skin anthrax for the baby of an ABC News producer. Those two individuals are also expected to be fine.

That fact has apparently left much of the city on edge.

Neil Cohen, commissioner for the city health department, said emergency rooms are "swamped" with people seeking nasal swabs to determine if they were exposed to anthrax. Cohen stressed that tests have little value because a positive result does not mean that a person is infected with anthrax.

"We need New Yorkers to take heed of the fact that going to an emergency room for a nasal swab test is really overtaxing very valuable resources, and it just doesn't make any sense whatsoever," Cohen said.

Giuliani stressed that anthrax can be treated and is not contagious.

"Everybody should move into a differ level of understanding of this and not overreact," the mayor said.

Across the country, jittery citizens are phoning in reports of suspicious substances found in trash cans, airports, offices and the mail. The overwhelming majority of those substances have been found to be benign. Hoaxes have frustrated law enforcement authorities, who vow to prosecute anyone who commits such an act.

"In an average year, the FBI handles approximately 250 assessments and responses involving chemical or biological agents or other weapons of mass destruction," Mueller said at a press conference in Washington. "Over the past 18 days alone, we've handled more than 3,300."

Postmaster General John Potter urged Americans to use care when handling their mail and said a postcard would be mailed to all households outlining what people need to be aware of.

"The best defense that we have right now is an educated American public and educated workforce, both the employees of the Postal Service and those who work in mailrooms," Potter said.

Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher said the nation has enough antibiotics for people who may need it, but he cautioned against doctors overprescribing medicine and people overusing it.

"We believe the treatment is to really discuss this issue with (patients) and to try them make them understand that we are able to respond, but to also understand the harm that can be done if people hoard antibiotics, use them inappropriately so that we develop more resistant strains" Satcher said.

But In Vermont, the state health department has recommended that all people associated with a Northwest Airlines flight that landed in Burlington late Monday begin a regimen of preventative antibiotics because of a powdery substance found on the plane.

Health Commissioner Jan Carney said Thursday the department contacted about 60 passengers, crew, baggage handlers and emergency personnel who may have come in contact with the substance.

The commissioner said the decision was made to recommend treatment after tests on the substance showed "a rod-shaped bacteria of the same genus as the bacteria that causes anthrax."

"This bacteria growth means that the substance could be anthrax," she said. "We believe that it is possible, but unlikely."

Initial tests on the substance indicated no spores, Carney said, but further tests revealed the bacteria genus. There are dozens of members of the genus, Carney said, including some that are commonly found in the environment.