Mail bin contaminated by "insignificant amount," say health officials; traces also found in Rep. Rush Holt’s Washington office
By: Jennifer Potash
The main Princeton post office in West Windsor was closed Saturday afternoon
after a mail bin tested positive for a "single colony" of anthrax, according to
state health officials.
Also, the Washington D.C. office of Rep. Rush Holt (D-12) was found to have
traces of anthrax, according to a spokeswoman for the congressman.
Department of Health and Senior Services acting Commissioner George T.
DiFerdinando Jr. said Saturday the mail bin at the Princeton post office on Roszel Road showed "an insignificant amount"
of anthrax.
"We consider the contamination or the single colony to be an insignificant
or minor amount," Dr. DiFerdinando said at a press conference at State
Police Headquarters in West Trenton.
A single colony is equivalent to a single spore of anthrax, said Dr. Eddy A.
Bresnitz, the New Jersey state epidemiologist. By comparison, the samples
taken from the Hamilton post office showed hundreds of colonies, he said.
Antibiotics will be made available to West Windsor post office
employees, although the health department and the federal Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention do not recommend such treatment in this
situation, Dr. DiFerdinando said.
"My estimation, after consultation with the CDC, we didn’t believe the
benefit of treatment was worth the effect of side effects to those people,"
Dr. DiFerdinando said.
There are also concerns about developing resistance to the drug in the general population, he said.
It is also unnecessary for contractors and vendors at the West Windsor
postal facility to begin the antibiotic regimen, Dr. DiFerdinando said.
The FBI is conducting crime scene sampling and teams from the state
Department of Health and the CDC are gathering epidemiological data, Dr.
DiFerdinando said.
The anthrax came from a single mail bin taken from the postal facility on
Roszel Road, he said. The mail bin was taken to the state laboratory Oct. 16. Testing commenced Tuesday and the bin tested positive Friday, Dr.
DiFerdinando said.
The bin is one of more than 1,100 pieces of material, including envelopes
and trash, awaiting testing, said Dr. Bresnitz.
Asked about the eight-day gap between the time the bin was brought to the lab and finally tested, Dr.
Bresnitz said there was no indication the bin was suspicious.
A number of samples were taken to the state’s lab Saturday morning for
analysis, said Dr. DiFerdinando.
Based on the results of the environmental sampling from the West Windsor
post office, the state Health Department, in conjunction with the United
States Postal Service, FBI and CDC, will develop an action plan to evaluate
the risk for all postal facilities that receive mail from the West Windsor
facility or the Hamilton post office on Route 130 that first tested positive
for anthrax, state health officials said.
"We continue to test facilities and recommend treatment based on following
the path of a letter that is known to be positive or following up on a
suspected case and that has been expressed to us as the national policy of
the CDC," Dr. DiFerdinando said.
Residents of the Princeton area served by the postal facility on Roszel
Road should continue to follow the guidelines recommended by health
authorities for handling mail, said Dr. DiFerdinando, a Princeton resident.
The United States Postal Service could not be reached for comment Saturday
on how service to the Princeton area will be affected by the closing of the
main post office.
Meanwhile, Rep. Holt and his 10-member
staff have the option of taking a 60-day course of Cipro, an antibiotic used to treat anthrax, said spokeswoman Michelle Ruess.
Some of the staff
have begun taking the treatment, she said. Rep. Holt said he has not done so.
The anthrax found in Rep. Holt’s office was probably the result of cross-contamination when
a piece of mail sent to him went through a House sorting machine that has
tested positive, Rep. Holt said.
His staff "is doing fine" in the circumstances, Rep. Holt said Saturday.
"I think it really helped that we educated ourselves about anthrax," he
said, adding that staff in both his Washington office and his district office in West Windsor had been briefed by Dr. Ron Naster, an infectious disease specialist, and the
congressman’s wife, Dr. Margaret Lancefield, an internist, both at The
Medical Center at Princeton.
Dr. DiFerdinando said based on conversations with CDC officials, the amount of anthrax found in the congressman’s Washington office was "insignificant."
Anyone who visited Rep. Holt’s Washington office since Oct. 11 should
call the physician of the House of Representatives at (202) 224-2923 or
(202) 225-5421, Ms. Ruess said.
The staff at Rep. Holt’s district office is coming into work
and taking reasonable precautions, she said.
"We’re taking the mail into a separate room and opening it with gloves and
then washing our hands," Ms. Ruess said. "We’re all washing our hand a lot
more now."
Three postal workers in New Jersey have cutaneous, or the skin, form of
anthrax, said Dr. Beth Bell, an epidemiologist with the CDC. Two of those
cases are confirmed and the other is a suspected case, she said.
There are
two people with suspected inhalation anthrax in New Jersey, Dr. Bell said.