Associated Press

Washington-area postal workers leave District of Columbia General Hospital in Washington yesterday after being examined. Two Washington-area postal workers have been diagnosed with inhalation anthrax, and two more employees at the same facility have died of symptoms consistent with this rare form of the disease, officials said Monday.

Tuesday October 23, 2001

WASHINGTON - Two postal workers at a site that handles mail for the U.S. Capitol died yesterday, likely from anthrax, officials said, and two more remained hospitalized with the life-threatening disease as the nation's bioterror casualty count mounted.

"The mail and our employees have become the target of terrorists," said Postmaster General John Potter.

Health officials also expressed concern about as many as nine other Washington-area people who have exhibited symptoms consistent with the disease and issued an urgent appeal for hundreds more postal workers at the facility to undergo testing.

"Anyone who was working in that back postal area during the last 11 days, you must today immediately come here ... to receive prophylactic medication and to be evaluated," said Dr. Ivan Walks, a city health official. About 2,000 employees work at the Brentwood facility, and many had already submitted to tests or lined up to comply.

Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge told reporters at the White House the deaths of the two men were "likely due to anthrax."

The disclosures came as Congress struggled to return to normal after the discovery of an anthrax-laced letter last week in the office of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle. The Capitol itself was reopened after weekend testing.

The sprawling office buildings on both sides of Capitol Hill remained closed for additional testing, and officials said at least some of those structures would remain shut down until tomorrow at the earliest. Two sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said House leaders were trying to arrange for alternative office space for lawmakers and staff unable to return to work.

"The Capitol, of course, has been safe, and we have ample reason to believe that within the next few days we'll be able to open up the other buildings as well," said Daschle, D-S.D.

Nearly six weeks after the terrorist airliner attacks that killed thousands in New York and Washington, the Environmental Protection Agency said it would use money from the federal Superfund program to help decontaminate the American Media Inc. headquarters building in Boca Raton, Fla. One employee of the tabloid publishing firm died of the inhalation form of the disease more than two weeks ago, and a co-worker is hospitalized and undergoing treatment.

In New Jersey, the FBI sought the source of least three anthrax-tainted letters that

went through a mail facility in the Trenton area. The three included the letter delivered to Daschle's office, as well one sent to NBC News anchorman Tom Brokaw and another one that turned up at The New York Post.

Nearly three weeks into the nation's bioterrorism scare, the roster of anthrax victims stood at: one confirmed death of inhalation anthrax, three other cases of inhalation anthrax, six confirmed cases of the less dangerous skin form of the disease and 28 confirmed cases of anthrax exposure in the Capitol complex.

Authorities had disclosed over the weekend that Leroy Richmond, a 57-year-old worker at the Brentwood facility, was diagnosed with the inhalation form of anthrax.

In addition, Walks said a second Brentwood employee, whose identity he did not disclose, had been diagnosed as suffering from the same illness and is undergoing treatment at the same hospital in suburban Virginia as Leroy Richmond.

Beyond that, he said, the two other employees from the same facility had died of

symptoms that raised suspicions of anthrax. He did not identify them.

Less than two hours later, Satcher said on CNN, "It does seem highly probable that those two deaths were related to inhalation anthrax."

Inhalation anthrax can look like the flu at first, health officials emphasize, and is curable only if antibiotics are begun early in its course.

Walks provided no additional information about the details of the other confirmed or suspected cases.