Anthrax turns up in VA hospital mailroom

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A mailroom in the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center here has tested positive for anthrax, officials said Saturday.

The mailroom is located in a hospital that houses 250 patients but is not near patient areas, said Phil Budahn, the VA's media relations director. (Full story)

Swabs were taken in the mailroom October 30 because the hospital receives its mail from the main Brentwood branch post office in Washington, the facility that processed an anthrax-laden letter sent to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle. One swab of 22 was positive, so administrators closed the mailroom, Budahn said.

"There is absolutely no indication this is a problem beyond the mailroom," Budahn said.

Elsewhere in Washington, Treasury Department officials said they were still waiting for results of environmental testing for anthrax at an off-site mail facility.

Officials closed the facility Friday night following the discovery by a mailroom worker of a suspicious letter with a Trenton, New Jersey, postmark. All three known letters laced with anthrax in the United States so far have been postmarked from Trenton. Results from those environmental tests should be available sometime this weekend, said a Treasury Department spokeswoman.

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Latest developments

• President Bush on Saturday defended the government's response to the anthrax threat and stressed that the bacteria is not contagious. "As we deal with this new threat, we are learning new information every day," Bush said in his weekly radio address. Health officials were acting quickly to distribute antibiotics for those who may have been exposed to the bacteria and were testing facilities for evidence of anthrax, he said. (Full story)

• A mail processing facility in Camden County, New Jersey, tested positive for the presence of anthrax in tests conducted by the FBI, state health officials said. One sample taken from the Bellmawr Mail Distibution Center tested positive for anthrax. All the other samples were negative. Environmental samples were taken Wednesday after an employee was diagnosed with a suspected case of cutaneous anthrax.

• In Newark, New Jersey, a letter turned up that contained small amounts of cyanide, but not enough to be fatal, officials said. A postal employee at a Newark facility noticed a letter that appeared to be leaking, and an analysis showed that it contained laundry detergent, a bleach powder and trace amounts of copper cyanide. Copper cyanide is used for copper electroplating, and can be fatal if large amounts are inhaled, swallowed or absorbed through the skin. (Full story)

• A health official investigating anthrax contamination at a Florida publishing company, where one man died of inhalation anthrax, said investigators are looking into the possibility that the company may have received more than one letter tainted with the bacteria.

• The head of Pakistan's health institute said Saturday his agency would test three people suspected of anthrax exposure in Karachi, and he asked a private laboratory that tested three envelopes for the bacteria to hand over the samples for further tests. (Full story)

• Cuban President Fidel Castro said more than 170 letters containing suspicious substances had been sent to his country, and 24 of them were being tested for anthrax. (Full story)

• Citing a "serious risk to aircrews," Federal Express pilots Friday asked company officials to implement a battery of safety procedures to safeguard them from anthrax exposure, including providing anthrax vaccinations. To underscore its request, the FedEx Pilots Association cited the treatment of 32 FedEx employees for what it called "suspected anthrax exposure." (The CDC has said these are not suspected cases.)

• FBI agents, many wearing oversized, white hazardous-materials suits, on Friday raided an apartment in Trenton, New Jersey, where four Pakistani men lived. Agents removed several bags of materials from the apartment. None of the apartment's residents were home at the time of the raid, the building manager said, but witnesses said one man who lived there came home during the search and was taken away in a police car. (Full story)

• The Treasury Department's off-site mail facility was closed Friday night for environmental testing after an employee there found a suspicious letter with the same Trenton, New Jersey, postmark as three anthrax-laden letters. Two government sources familiar with the investigation told CNN the letter also had "unusual" writing on the outside. A mailroom worker flagged the letter for both reasons. (Full story)

• FBI Director Robert Mueller reached out to the public for help with the investigation. "We ask you, throughout the country, to report any suspicious behavior that involves any United States mails or individuals knowledgeable about anthrax," he said.

• Health experts told doctors there is a clue to distinguish between colds, flu and anthrax. They said anthrax victims do not have runny noses.