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Third case of anthrax fuels panic across US

War against terrorism: Biological fears

Friday 12 October 2001 00:00 BST
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The grim sense of foreboding that has gripped America since 11 September deepened on Thursday after a third person exposed to anthrax bacteria was confirmed in Florida.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation confirmed it was treating the outbreak, in the offices of the country's best- selling tabloid newspapers, as a criminal matter.

All kinds of rumours swirled among a jittery public, fueled by media reports that said the anthrax might have stolen from a government laboratory, or that a biological attack was launched by members of the suicide team that flew planes in the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon a month ago.

Government officials said it was not a time for irresponsible reporting or scaremongering. They said they did not know who had released the bacteria or what their motives were for doing so.

All they would confirm yesterday was that a third employee of the tabloid newspaper publisher, American Media Inc, had tested positive for anthrax. The employee, a 35-year-old woman whose name was withheld at her request, was free of symptoms. The FBI ordered a third search of the AMI building in Boca Raton, Florida, and health officials said the premises would remain closed for at least a month. AMI employees are undergoing the first of two rounds of blood analysis.

The alarm was raised last week when a photo editor at one of AMI's tabloids, The Sun, contracted the disease and died. The panic broke out after a second employee was found to have been exposed and traces of anthrax were found on the dead man's computer keyboard.

The antibiotic ciprofloxacin has now sold out of pharmacies in Florida and other parts of the country, even though it can only be administered after exposure to anthrax but before the disease sets in. The few voices of calm pointing out how hard it is to mount a biological attack, and how low the casualty rate has been, have mostly been drowned out.

"There is a lot of information out there that, when verified, turns out to not be true,'' the Governor of Florida, Jeb Bush, said. "This is scary. This is not an easy thing. It's brand new. [But] it's appropriate to have a response that is professional and authoritative.''

There have also been thousands of hoax bomb scares across the country. In Los Angeles, City Hall was emptied recently because of a canvas bag that turned out to be the mail.

In addition, the panic has spread to Germany. Yesterday, police cordoned off much of Wiesbaden after the discovery of nine envelopes marked with the words "the jihad has begun" and identifying the anonymous sender as "the anthrax agent". The initial investigation found no trace of anthrax, but by then 16 people had been placed in quarantine.

On Wednesday, a suspicious package at a furniture store caused panic in Berlin. The package was found to contain a clean piece of tissue paper.

Germany's officials say it is far below Britain and America on the list of terrorist targets. But the Hamburg connection to the hijackings, and reports in the tabloid press of impending attacks, have perturbed the authorities and the population.

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