Friday October 19, 2001

WASHINGTON - A CBS employee who opens Dan Rather's mail and a postal worker in New Jersey were added yesterday to the troubling roster of Americans infected with anthrax. As many as three more people reported telltale skin lesions that may signify additional cases.

"Our labs are working around the clock to try and get clarity," said Dr. Julie Gerberding of the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The disclosures brought the number of confirmed cases of anthrax nationwide to six since Oct. 4 and complicated the Bush administration's effort to reassure an anxious nation it was working aggressively to combat bioterrorism and other threats.

"Our antennae are up for all conceivable risks," said Tom Ridge, appointed the nation's first director of Homeland Security in the wake of Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that killed thousands in New York and Washington.

Standing by Ridge's side at a news conference, Surgeon General David Satcher said stockpiles of antibiotics are sufficient to respond to the anthrax threat, and FBI Director Robert Mueller announced a $1 million reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the culprits behind a spate of anthrax-tainted mail.

Even apart from the new cases of anthrax, there was ample evidence of inconvenience, dislocation and perhaps worse as the government struggled against a lethal spore so tiny it is invisible to the human eye.

Congressional activity was largely shut down, the House officially, the Senate in session but its sprawling complex of three office buildings closed. Officials said they had received laboratory results for hundreds of people, but no additional reports of positive tests for anthrax exposure beyond the 31 disclosed on Wednesday. All were linked to a letter opened earlier in the week in the office of Majority Leader Tom Daschle.

"At this time, there is no evidence of contamination in the ventilation system" of the building that houses his office, said Daschle, D-S.D.

"We know we've got a hot zone in the Hart Building, probably in the Dirksen Building," said House Democratic leader Dick Gephardt. "The remaining question is, are there hot zones in other areas of other buildings?"

In Vermont, officials recommended a 60-day course of antibiotics for 60 people aboard a Northwest Airlines flight that landed in Burlington on Monday night. Dr. Jan Carney, state health commissioner, said preliminary tests of a powdery substance found on the plane "showed no evidence of spores, but further tests have shown growth of a bacillus or rod-shaped bacteria of the same genus as the bacteria that causes anthrax."

In a conference call with reporters, the CDC's Gerberding said, "We do have other individuals who are reporting skin lesions or exposure circumstances that are under active investigation."

As many as four people fall into that category, she said. One of them, the postal worker in New Jersey, was later confirmed to be infected.

She said the four are "in large part linked" to the outbreak in New York and to another in Florida where one man died and another is hospitalized with a more serious inhalation form of the disease.

Ridge labored to minimize the news that two more anthrax cases had been confirmed.

"Thousands and thousands and thousands of people have been tested ... yet only five people have tested positive at this time," he said, adding that officials were in the process of confirming the sixth.

CBS announced at midmorning that it had become the latest major television network to be touched by anthrax.

Network officials said a woman who works for Rather had been diagnosed with a skin form of the disease. "She's doing fine. She feels great," said network news president Andrew Heyward. "Her prognosis is excellent."

The woman, whose name was not released, discovered a blemish on her cheek earlier this month, "before anthrax was on anybody's mind," Rather told a news conference. He said initial blood and nasal swab tests came back negative, but a biopsy test came back positive. He said she had no memory of opening suspicious-looking mail.

The development followed the delivery of an anthrax-laced letter to Tom Brokaw, a case in which an office worker contracted a skin form of the disease.

Officials reported earlier in the week that the 7-month-old son of an ABC producer had contracted skin anthrax, but they have provided no explanation of the source.

In New Jersey, Postal Inspector Tony Esposito said a female letter carrier at a West Trenton post office had tested positive for anthrax, and a maintenance employee at the main Trenton mail facility was awaiting test results. Acting Gov. Donald DiFrancesco said both were doing well and taking antibiotics.

The anthrax-spiked letters mailed to Daschle and Brokaw both were postmarked at the mail facility.

Ridge, flanked by other senior officials, presided over an hour-long news conference at which the administration unveiled several initiatives to ease public concern.

Apart from the $1 million reward and reassurances about antibiotics, Postmaster General John Potter said postcards would be sent to every mailing address in the nation with instructions on the handling of suspicious mail.