Eighth Case of Inhalation Anthrax Confirmed in US

A United States postal worker was confirmed with inhalation anthrax on Sunday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced.

The female New Jersey postal worker was not a new anthrax patient but rather had been previously listed as a suspect, and laboratory tests confirmed the diagnosis, the centers said.

The mail worker became the eighth case of inhalation anthrax confirmed in the United States. So far, three Americans have died of the inhaled form of anthrax and two of the three dead were Washington-area mail workers.

On Sunday night, the U.S. Justice Department said that several locations in a suburban Maryland postal facility which processed its mail and tested positive for anthrax and mailrooms within the department had been tested for the disease and results would be available by Tuesday.

Before the Justice Department was found to be contaminated with the bacteria, off-site mail facilities of the White House, the State Department and the Supreme Court were found to be contaminated with anthrax.

On Thursday, a mail worker with one of the State Department's off-site mail facilities was confirmed with inhalation anthrax. The same day, a test for anthrax in a mailroom in the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Silver Spring, Maryland, also came back positive.






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