Posted On: Thursday, January 5th, 2012 at 11:57 am
But Source of Deadly Infection Still A Mystery, Investigators Say
The two Florida men infected with anthrax almost certainly caught the bacteria as a result of intentional infection, experts now say. But law enforcement officials are not sure if terrorists or other criminals may be to blame.
State and federal officials today continued their hunt for the source of the highly toxic germs, which have been linked to the death Friday of Bob Stevens, a 63-year-old photo editor at the The Sun, based in Boca Raton. Stevens was diagnosed with inhaled anthrax, a particularly lethal and rare form of the disease.
One possibility is that a letter sent to the tabloid could have been carrying the bacteria, according to a CNN report.
The second victim, 73-year-old Ernesto Blanco, is in a Florida hospital being treated; he is a mail supervisor at the same supermarket tabloid. Swabs of his nasal cavity turned up spores of the bacteria, but he has not fallen ill, officials say. A Florida health official told the Palm Beach Post that tests of the spores revealed that it was identical to those found on a computer keyboard used by Stevens at The Sun’s building in Boca Raton.
FBI investigators have shut down the facility, home to the American Media Inc., the parent company of The Sun, The National Enquirer and several other supermarket tabloids. Meanwhile, more than 700 people with ties to the building have undergone testing for exposure to the bacteria, and many have been given precautionary doses of the antibiotic ciprofloxacin. Another 100 people are expected to be tested.
Investigators have also been looking at the ventilation system at American Media’s headquarters as a possible conduit for the microbes. However, they have yet to identify the source of the infection, which cannot be passed from person to person.
U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft has said the inquiry could become a “clear criminal investigation” as officials piece together the trail of the infections. At the moment, however, “We don’t have enough information to know whether this could be related to terrorism or not,” Ashcroft told reporters.
Mohamed Atta, a pilot in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, had lived for a time in Delray Beach, a short drive from the American Media offices. The building is also close to an airport in Lantana where Atta rented light planes at least three times. Investigators believe the terrorists considered trying to spread a killer organism using crop dusters.
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