Possible home anthrax mailings 'intensively investigated'

Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health

(CNN) -- A top federal health official said Tuesday that authorities are "intensively investigating" the possibility that private homes are being targeted for anthrax-tainted mail sent through the U.S. Postal Service.

"Up to [Monday], there was no evidence at all that there could be -- or is -- an individual in which there might be the reasonable question, 'Did they get infected from a piece of mail that went to their home?'" said Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health. "That is being intensively investigated right now."

Speaking at a White House news conference, Fauci said the investigation had turned in that direction after suspicions arose that a New Jersey woman and another in New York had contracted anthrax without coming into contact with a mail-handling facility.

New York City health officials on Tuesday confirmed that an ailing hospital work is suffering from inhalation anthrax. New York City Health Commissioner Neal Cohen said additional blood work and tests confirmed the diagnosis. The 61-year-old woman is listed in critical condition at Lenox Hill Hospital. The unidentified woman works in the supply room of Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital, which has been closed for environmental testing. (Full story)

In New Jersey, a 51-year-old woman who lives near the Hamilton Township mail-processing center, where traces of anthrax have been found, tested positive for skin anthrax but is doing fine, health officials said. The woman, who is not a postal employee or member of the media, was released from a hospital two days ago, the officials said. New Jersey officials also confirmed Monday that a postal worker has inhalation anthrax. (Full story)

Latest developments

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• The anthrax threat has put an end to holiday mail programs aimed at raising the spirits of military personnel by showing them that Americans care about them. Military postal officials on Tuesday reluctantly ended the "Operation Dear Abby" and "Any Service Member" postal programs, citing the "vulnerability of the postal system."

• Postal officials confirmed two more District of Columbia area facilities have tested positive for anthrax: a post office in the Friendship Heights area of northwest Washington and a retail postal facility near Dulles International Airport in Virginia. The retail outlet is in an office building on the airport property about a quarter mile away from the terminal.

Dr. Ivan Walks, chief D.C. health officer, urged postal employees who worked in those facilities to seek medical attention and begin taking antibiotics as a precaution. "If we move quickly and get treatment quickly, inhalation anthrax does not have to be a death sentence," Walks said.

• D.C. officials are urging postal workers at any area U.S. Postal Service facilities where environmental tests were positive for anthrax or where tests are still pending to get a 60-day supply of antibiotics before their 10-day supply runs out.

• Postmaster General John Potter defended his office Tuesday against charges it had been slow to respond to the anthrax crisis, particularly as it relates to postal employees. "We were operating in good faith, trying to make the right decisions, based on the facts at hand and the advice we were receiving from the experts," Potter told a Senate panel, noting that authorities initially believed anthrax spores could not pass out of a sealed envelope, as apparently has happened.

Potter told the Senate panel the Postal Service would need "several billion" dollars to recover from the anthrax crisis. (Full story)

• Secretary of State Colin Powell addressed a State Department town hall meeting Tuesday to allay concerns department has "really swung into action" to isolate and clean up anthrax contaminated sites at headquarters, at annex buildings and at embassies and consulates around the world. (Full story)

• Chief Justice William Rehnquist announced from the bench Tuesday that the U.S. Supreme Court justices will meet for a third consecutive day Wednesday in a ceremonial courtroom of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The Supreme Court building remains closed at least through Wednesday after positive tests for anthrax in the court's mailroom. Officials are awaiting the results of further environmental tests. (Full story)

• The U.S. Capitol Police's bomb squad office in the Ford House Office Building has tested positive for "trace amounts" of anthrax, a police official said Tuesday. It is considered "highly likely" cross contamination from another site containing anthrax is responsible, said Lt. Dan Nichols, a police spokesman.

• Tests of White House mail facilities and personnel are finished, and they show no signs of anthrax contamination, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Tuesday.

• Anthrax spores have been discovered on a feeder belt in the main U.S. Postal Service processing facility in Palm Beach County, Florida. Postal Service spokesman Joe Breckenridge said the small amount of spores collected posed no danger to postal workers and there was no plan to shut down the facility.

• Two additional mail offices in Washington were contaminated with anthrax, Postmaster General John Potter announced at a Senate hearing Tuesday. Deputy Postmaster General John Nolan identified the facilities as the Friendship Heights Station in northwest Washington and the retail station at Dulles International Airport in northeast Virginia. The city's Brentwood processing facility already tested positive for the bacteria.

• Senate leaders agreed Tuesday to accept Environmental Protection Agency recommendations to fumigate the Hart Senate Office Building with chlorine dioxide gas to kill any anthrax spores that may remain inside. An anthrax-tainted letter was delivered to the office of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-South Dakota. Other federal agencies also must approve the plan. (Full story)

• The New York Post said Monday a third employee was showing signs of skin anthrax and was awaiting the results of a biopsy. The man, who is an editor on the editorial page, was placed on antibiotics and was expected to make a full recovery, the Post said. He was believed to have been exposed to an anthrax-tainted letter to the Post postmarked September 18.

• A New York postal union filed a lawsuit Monday to force the closing of New York's biggest mail-sorting center. Postal officials had announced that Manhattan's Morgan Mail Processing and Distribution Center would remain open during the anthrax decontamination set to begin Monday. (Full story)

• Mail workers in Florida sued the U.S. Postal Service Monday, demanding the testing of all employees at facilities that might have been contaminated by anthrax. The Miami local of the American Postal Workers Union, which represents 3,300 workers from Boca Raton to Homestead, also called for the buildings to be closed until they can be screened for anthrax. (Full story)