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Anthrax II: Connecticut Woman Might Have Died From Junk Mail New developments have emerged in the cases of last autumn’s inhalational anthrax victims Ottilie Lundgren and Thomas Morris Jr., while U.S. military officials assess the effects of anthrax vaccine and authorities begin cleanup activities at the Brentwood Road postal facility in Washington, according to reports. Lundgren, the Connecticut woman who died of inhalational anthrax in November, might have contracted the disease by ripping up contaminated junk mail, a Connecticut health official said yesterday (see GSN, Feb. 20). None of Lundgren’s first-class mail passed through mail-processing centers contaminated with anthrax, said Connecticut state epidemiologist James Handler. About 80 percent of her mail was bulk mail, however, and some of that passed through the Trenton, N.J., mail-processing center that became contaminated after handling anthrax-tainted letters sent to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) and Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.). Anthrax spores could have cross-contaminated mail as it passed through the Trenton facility, and then that mail could have contaminated mail-processing machines in Connecticut, according to the New York Times. Testing conducted at a Wallingford, Conn., postal distribution center discovered anthrax spores on four out of 13 mail-sorting machines, Hadler said. One machine that handled primarily bulk mail had 3 million spores still remaining on it a month after contaminated mail is believed to have passed through. At another machine, one out of 52 columns of mail bins also tested positive for spores — the same column used for mail on Lundgren’s route, the Times reported. Because the mail was so lightly contaminated, Lundgren probably was the only person in her town to become infected, according to scientists. Due to her age, the 94-year-old Lundgren might have only needed to be exposed to a few spores to contract the disease. Hadler said he believes it was appropriate to advise all people to open mail gently (Denise Grady, New York Times, March 27). Victim’s Family Files Malpractice Lawsuit In the case of Thomas Morris Jr., a Washington postal worker who died of inhalational anthrax last year, Morris’ family has filed a lawsuit charging that a Maryland medical center misdiagnosed Morris’ symptoms shortly before his death (see GSN, Nov. 8, 2001). The multimillion-dollar lawsuit claims medical malpractice, wrongful death, negligence and other errors in Morris’s death, according to the Washington Post. The Kaiser Permanente health plan that owns the Maryland medical center and nurse practitioner Alan Korff are named as defendants. According to the lawsuit, Morris went to the Kaiser Permanente Marlow Heights Medical Center on Oct. 18 and claimed he had trouble breathing, along with other anthrax-exposure symptoms. Morris told Korff he though he had contracted anthrax, but Korff and physician supervisors told Morris that he only had a virus, the lawsuit said. They told him to take Tylenol and sent him home, according to the lawsuit. Morris “died needlessly because of the negligence,” said Johnnie Cochran Jr., one of the lawyers representing the Morris family. Two other Washington postal workers who were treated for anthrax at a different hospital eventually recovered, Cochran said. Kaiser Permanente spokeswoman Susan Whyte Simon said Korff had contacted Maryland health officials about Morris’s case and followed their recommendations. Morris “died because someone put anthrax into an envelope and sent it through the mail,” said a Kaiser Permanente official, adding that it would “provide a response through the court system” to the lawsuit’s allegations (Fernandez/Castaneda, Washington Post, March 27). Vaccine Effects on Pregnancies Studied Meanwhile, the current U.S. anthrax vaccine does not appear to have a negative effect on women’s fertility, according to a study conducted on U.S. Army soldiers (see GSN, March 1). The study, conducted on women in the Army who were not pregnant when they were vaccinated, found that the vaccine did not appear to have a negative effect on pregnancy and birthrates, according to the Associated Press. Researchers at the Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma, Wash. conducted the study and the results are expected to be published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association. It appears that the vaccine also does not increase the chance of later birth defects when given to nonpregnant women, according to the study. The results on birth defects, however, were not conclusive because of the low numbers of pregnancies occurring among the women involved, researchers said. The new study contrasts with the findings of a prior U.S. Navy study, which found possible connections between an increase in birth defects and the anthrax vaccine when used early in pregnancy (see GSN, Jan. 18). There have been major questions raised about the accuracy of the Navy study, said William Winkenwerder, assistant defense secretary for health affairs. The results of the Army study were “reassuring to women in the services,” he said (Lindsey Tanner, Associated Press, March 26). Brentwood Mail Facility Cleanup Has Begun At the anthrax-contaminated Brentwood Road postal facility in Washington, some cleanup activities have begun, according to CNN.com (see GSN, March 26). The bulk of the decontamination effort — pumping the building full of chloride dioxide gas — will not begin until at least late May, said Thomas Day, U.S Postal Service vice president for engineering. Before the chlorine dioxide process begins, postal officials plan to conduct a weeks-long community outreach program to allay fears of residents near the facility, according to CNN.com. Postal officials are also expected to talk with postal workers about their concerns over the Brentwood decontamination effort. Chlorine dioxide gas was chosen to kill anthrax spores inside the Brentwood facility because of its success in decontaminating the Hart Senate Office Building. One major difference, however, is the size of the buildings — 100,000 cubic feet of space were decontaminated at the Hart building, while the Brentwood facility is 17.5 million cubic feet. “Just sheer size is one of the challenges,” Day said yesterday, describing the Postal Service’s plan to decontaminate Brentwood. The building layouts are also different. Brentwood is “an open, easily accessible area. … It’s hard to make the complete comparison,” Day said. “The Hart building was a classic office environment with lots of nooks and crannies and bookshelves and desks and everything else” (Brad Wright, CNN.com, March 26).
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