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Anthrax: Connecticut Woman Is Fifth Anthrax Death Ottilie Lundgren, a 94-year-old Connecticut woman died today at a hospital where she was receiving treatment for inhalation anthrax (CNN Headline News, Nov. 21). Earlier in the day, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention diagnosed her with inhalation anthrax (Kerry Boyd, GSN, Nov. 21). Lundgren first tested positive early on Saturday, and medical authorities placed her on antibiotics. Lundgren remained in critical condition as of last night. The FBI arrived in Connecticut yesterday to investigate. The origin of the anthrax that infected Lundgren remained unclear, especially because Lundgren was an elderly woman who lived alone and was not an obvious target, according to the New York Times. “It’s difficult to explain how the person contracted anthrax,” said Connecticut Governor John Rowland. Prior to her official diagnosis, officials said they would treat Lundgren’s case as a criminal investigation if the CDC confirmed the diagnosis. Lundgren lived in a rural part of Oxford, Conn. No evidence has surfaced to indicate anyone else in the area was exposed to anthrax, Rowland said. More Anthrax Found on Capitol Hill Meanwhile, anthrax spores were discovered yesterday in the offices of Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Senator Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), said Lt. Dan Nichols, spokesman for the Capitol police. The amount of spores was too small to pose a threat, and medical authorities did not recommend treatment for the workers in the offices. “We don’t view this as a public health risk,” said John Eisold, the Capitol physician (Paul Zielbauer, New York Times, Nov. 21). Reuters reported that the anthrax in Kennedy’s and Dodd’s offices was discovered during a sweep over the weekend. The anthrax spores probably came from mail that was contaminated by two other letters (see GSN, Nov. 20) sent to Capitol Hill that carried a large number anthrax spores, said one source (Reuters/Globe and Mail, Nov. 21). BioPort Resumes Anthrax Vaccine Production BioPort Corp., the only U.S. company licensed to produce anthrax vaccine, is expected to resume vaccine production later this week, said BioPort spokeswoman Kim Brennan-Root. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration shut down the company’s anthrax vaccine production in 1998 for hygiene and sterility violations, but Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson tentatively approved resumption of the vaccine production last month (see GSN, Nov. 1). BioPort is scheduled for an inspection by FDA officials next month, and Brennan-Root said the company had met all FDA requirements and was prepared for the inspection. BioPort produces the anthrax vaccine for the U.S. military and for workers at the CDC (Delthia Ricks, Newsday, Nov. 21). Some State Department Mail Distribution Resumes The U.S. State Department has resumed distributing new mail from the U.S. Postal Service to recipients overseas. All department mail rooms that received mail from the Sterling, Va., facility—where anthrax traces were discovered (see GSN, Nov. 14)—have been cleaned, and all new mail has been irradiated, so the mail is safe to send, said department spokesman Richard Boucher yesterday. The Sterling facility was not yet cleaned. All the old mail that could have passed through the postal system with an infected letter, perhaps addressed to Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), was set aside for further inspection, Boucher said (U.S. State Department transcript, Nov. 20).
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