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Thursday, Oct. 11, 2001

"The FBI, the U.S. attorney's office, the Justice Department, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and state officials have come together in the investigation of this matter," said U.S. Attorney Guy Lewis.

Hector Pesquera, head of the Miami FBI office, said investigators have determined the anthrax was limited to the American Media building in Boca Raton, Fla. The company publishes supermarket tabloids including the Sun and the National Enquirer.

"The FBI is going through the building in a methodical process, floor by floor, cubicle by cubicle, area by area, covering the 66,000 feet of office space," Lewis said.

Pesquera said there is still no indication that the strain was produced or caused by terrorists connected with the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon.

But Lewis said there was still that possibility.

"We don't have evidence that it was connected to the Sept. 11 incident, but we don't rule it out," Lewis said. "It would be improper for me to come to any premature conclusion."

Florida Secretary of Health John Agwonobi said: "It is important that the people of Florida remember this. Anthrax is not contagious." He said more than 1,000 employees and visitors to the building have been examined and provided with information and advice.

"We have reviewed 700 of the nasal swabs and expect the remainder will be available in the next day or two," he said. "We have found one positive anthrax test. That was in a 35-year-old female. She is on antibiotics. We will be working closely with her."

It was not disclosed whether she worked near the desk where photo editor Bob Stevens, 63, worked and where he was fatally infected with the disease.

There were reports earlier Wednesday that the strain of the anthrax in the building was traced to an Iowa facility that harvested it in the 1950s. Sources said the tests are not complete, but it would mean the strain did not show up in south Florida by accident.

"That's where we are headed, but the tests are not conclusive. We wanted to be sure," a source close to the investigation told The Miami Herald.

Iowa health officials said testing is far from conclusive.

"We've been told by Florida and the Centers for Disease Control, specifically Dr. Jeffrey Koplan, sub-typing is not far enough along to say this is the Ames strain. The Miami Herald story may be premature," said Kevin Teale, spokesman for the Iowa health department.

"One strain of anthrax, Bacillus anthracis Ames, was isolated from a sick animal at Iowa State University in the early 1950s," said a prepared statement from the department.

The department said the identification would still not determine the origin of the naturally occurring sub-strain.

Dr. Bradley Perkins, an epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control, said it would take weeks to subtype the anthrax.

"So far I can tell you that the three strains do appear to be from the same source," Perkins said, referring to the anthrax that killed Stevens, infected Blanco and was found on Stevens' computer keyboard.

He said the female's strain has yet to be tested.

Lewis and Perkins said they did not know whether the spores could have been stolen from the laboratory in Iowa. He said scientists also did not know whether the spores were manufactured or natural, although other scientists said they were of natural origin.

"Those studies are under way and when we have information that's available and appropriate for release, as per the determination of the FBI, it will be provided," Perkins said.

Dr. Mohammad Akhter, executive director of the American Public Health Association in Washington, told United Press International the final determination of the source and type of anthrax will be made by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

He said local and state laboratories have varying degrees of capability in making such determination and that "until the CDC speaks we don't have a final definitive answer."

Akhter warned, however that security at the nation's laboratories must be increased to prevent the theft of various types of biological disease strains researchers use in their search for medical treatments and cures. "Whatever safeguards they already have, they have to increase it," he told UPI.

Judy Orihuela of the Miami field office of the FBI said she was not sure what the significance of typing the strain might be.

Stevens died Friday from an anthrax infection he apparently picked up at his desk. Anthrax spores turned up on Stevens' computer keyboard.

Ernesto Blanco, 73, a mailroom employee at American Media, also was exposed but does not have anthrax infection.

The Herald reported that two of the 19 hijackers who died in the attacks subscribed to tabloids published by American Media.

"We're not sure what to make of that yet. It may mean absolutely nothing," a source told the Herald.

The Herald said the link between Stevens’ death and the Iowa strain was made at a Centers for Disease Control facility in Arizona where anthrax strains are kept.

Raymond Zilinskas of the Monterey Institute of International Studies said Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff and Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico have collections, or "libraries," of anthrax strains from around the world.

"What the investigators are probably doing is trying to match the genetic makeup of the strain recovered from Stevens with one in the collections," he said.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Wednesday the Bush administration has engaged in a "proactive effort to get information [about the anthrax] in the hands of people in Florida. He said there "also would be false claims" and that the government remains ready to track down each one.

BioPort, the only laboratory in America able to produce an anthrax vaccine, has been shut down by the FDA, although inspectors did not examine the part of the plant that made the vaccine.

BioPort has not been asked to send stockpiled vaccine to Florida. In an interview on ABC's "20/20," BioPort president Robert Kramer told interviewer Barbara Walters the firm does not have permission to provide the vaccine to civilians. Its contract is to supply the military only.

"The truth is, if there is an outbreak of anthrax, we do not have a vaccine available for civilians," Walters said.

"At some point in the future, we will have additional vaccine available for civilian use," Kramer said.

He said the FDA has approved the vaccine, but has not approved BioPort's new facility for making it.

"It will be made available for civilian use at the appropriate time, when we have met all the obligations that we have to the Department of Defense," Kramer said.

Anthrax experts have told UPI there is no chance the anthrax strain found in Florida could have gotten there without human intervention. They also discounted the possibility the strain was modified -- was not a natural anthrax strain -- or that it was some type of natural mutation that could be passed from person to person.

American Media in a prepared statement said concerns the disease can be transmitted through paper and ink are false.

"There is no risk of exposure of anthrax being transmitted by handling any tabloids or publications published by American Media," said company chairman David Pecker.

He also said the firm's publications are being published on time. Some were ready to go when Stevens died and others were put together at an alternate site in Delray Beach, Fla.

Copyright 2001 by United Press International. All rights reserved.

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