Two Truck Drivers Medicated Against Anthrax
The two drivers may have been exposed at the now closed Brentwood mail-processing center in Washington, D.C. Two employees at the facility have died and several others are believed to have contracted the disease. The government has urged about 10,000 people, including many postal workers, to take Cipro because of possible exposure to anthrax.
The Brentwood facility is unique because it is the only U.S. Postal Service center with a governmental mail section, the AP said. Mail to 230 federal agencies is routed through the building each day.
Postal workers around the country are being tested for the contagion, but are still on the job -- albeit wearing surgical gloves and masks in some locations, according to news services.
Vincent Sombrotto, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, called the 240,000 USPS employees soldiers in this war, and said that the attacks would not stop the mail from being delivered.
Meanwhile, anthrax has also been discovered in a freight lift in the Hart Senate Office Building, which houses Sen. Tom Daschle’s office, news services said. The Senate Majority leader received a letter tainted with the bacteria nearly one week ago.
The Hart building is still closed, but other buildings including offices around the Capitol are beginning to reopen.
And In what officials are calling an unrelated incident, the Manhattan office of former President Bill Clinton received a package containing about a dozen vials of salmonella, Reuters said.
The salmonella, which is deadly to young children and those with weak immune systems, did not appear to be lab processed, indicating the salmonella was the result of spoilage. Secret Service officials said that while the package was unusual, it likely has no connection to the anthrax mailings.
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