NewsMax.com Wires
Thursday, October 04, 2001

Although authorities are concerned that anthrax might be used in a terrorist strike at the United States, Timothy O'Connor, spokesman for the Palm Beach County Health Department, said, "Right now we believe this is an isolated case and not, in any way connected to terrorist activity."

The man, an employee of American Media in Boca Raton, Fla., is being treated at John F. Kennedy Medical Center in Atlantis, Fla., a community adjacent to Lantana. He was identified by The Miami Herald as Robert Stevens; the identity was confirmed by other, non-hospital sources.

"The Lantana resident arrived at the hospital about 2:30 a.m. Tuesday," O'Connor told United Press International. "He was vomiting, had high fever, was delirious and was suffering from seizures."

O'Connor said the hospital's infectious disease specialist, fearing meningitis, took spinal fluid samples. When analyzed, the specialist noted rod-shaped bacilli, bacteria similar to anthrax.

Because of fears of terrorist activity, including the possibility that anthrax might be a method of poisoning large populations, O'Connor said the health department had earlier issued heightened awareness circulars to hospitals and health departments.

He said the hospital doctor sent samples to the State of Florida laboratory in Jacksonville where the sample was preliminarily determined to be Bacillus anthracis - commonly known as anthrax.

The state lab sent samples to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Ga., where the anthrax confirmation was confirmed Thursday, O'Connor said.

He said the man's condition has deteriorated.

"He is not conscious. This disease - pulmonary anthrax - is 90 percent fatal. As of now, we do not know how he contracted the disease."

He is being kept in isolation at the hospital, but O'Connor said anthrax is not a contagious disease. The staff attending the patient wear standard hospital dress, he said.

O'Connor said there were no plans at present to vaccinate co-workers, neighbors or family members with anthrax vaccine. O'Connor said anthrax has an incubation period that can be as long as 60 days, but more often, symptoms occur within one to six days after contact.

Anthrax, he said, can occur from eating meat that is not well cooked. It can also be contracted through the air, O'Connor said, but it requires inhaling a large amount of the bacteria to develop the infection.

"It is not the type of infection caused by casual encounters," he said.

The patient had visited North Carolina in the week before being ill, but O'Connor said investigators believe that it is more likely the infection was picked up in Florida. Anthrax lives in the soil and can be ingested by goats, sheep and cattle when the bacteria is kicked up and settles on grasses.

Lantana and Atlantis are located in central Palm Beach County, about seven miles south of West Palm Beach. The hospital is located across the street from a local airport that is believed to have been used as a training facility by the terrorists who hijacked the airliners that were crashed into the World Trade Center towers Sept. 11. They resided in Delray Beach, about 5 miles to the south.

Copyright 2001 by United Press International. All rights reserved.