N.J. Requests Statewide Anthrax Tests

TRENTON, N.J.: Acting Gov. Donald T. DiFrancesco asked the new Office of Homeland Security on Thursday to send to the state forensic experts, lab personnel, medical investigators and other staff.

The state plans to turn a now vacant 78,000-square-foot laboratory outside Trenton into a headquarters for anthrax testing.

But New Jersey needs expert help to staff such a facility, which is needed to handle the volume of environmental testing the state says must be done, DiFrancesco said.

Those experts, as well as state investigators, must find out how the anthrax got through the postal system and infected at least one person outside the system, the acting governor said in a letter to former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, who heads the federal office. "The national public health infrastructure must be mobilized to assist New Jersey's handling of these anthrax related challenges just as the nation's emergency response infrastructure was mobilized to assist New York City after the attacks of Sept. 11," DiFrancesco wrote. The state also asked for more help with the criminal investigation.

"It appears that New Jersey, for all intents and purposes, is the front line of the anthrax attack on our nation," DiFrancesco said in the letter.

The acting governor spoke directly to Ridge on Wednesday, and plans to visit with White House staff on Monday, DiFrancesco spokesman Tom Wilson said. The letter was sent Thursday.

"He certainly understood what we were asking for and pledges to work with us as best we can to help meet our needs," Wilson said.

DiFrancesco made the request after a 54-year-old Delaware man became the first suspected infection in the state outside the Trenton area, where three anthrax-tainted letters were mailed to New York and Washington; the letters had been processed at the Hamilton mail processing facility.

The latest victim worked in the Bellmawr regional mail processing plant, which remained closed Thursday. Blood tests came back positive for the disease in the man; a skin biopsy was inconclusive and is being examined in further tests, officials said.

New Jersey has five confirmed cases of anthrax and one other suspected case. All but one are postal workers. One of the victims of inhalation anthrax remained hospitalized Thursday in fair condition.

Investigators are still trying to determine how a 51-year-old Hamilton woman contracted skin anthrax. The woman does not remember opening any suspicious mail.

The working theory is that the New Jersey woman contacted the disease through the mail. But federal and state health officials said Thursday they are considering other options as well.

Other possibilities include speculation that there have been undiagnosed cases in the past of anthrax, which can occur naturally. Skin anthrax can look like a rash or spider bite, and the inhaled form of the disease often resembles the flu or a severe cold.

But the possibility of cross-contamination is the major reason why all post offices need to be tested, according to DiFrancesco.

So far anthrax has been found only at the Hamilton office and the Princeton main post office.

"In order to do this the way we want to do it, which is as quickly as possible, we just don't have the resources to test every post office," Wilson said.

The deal to secure the laboratory, which was recently constructed to be a private testing facility, should be completed within two weeks, the spokesman said. But the state needs federal workers to help operate the facility, Wilson said.

"We need them to bring up people. We need them to bring up resources. We need scientists, we need equipment, we need experts," he said.

Earlier Thursday morning, a federal judge rejected a request by the American Postal Workers Union to close the Eatontown mail processing center.

Employees wanted the facility shut down until environmental tests prove it's safe and employees are provided with anthrax tests and antibiotics.

Two Eatontown postal workers who were hospitalized this week with symptoms consistent with anthrax have tested negative for the disease.

Officials said there is no firm protocol for closing a facility, and that health officials and the postal service should confer before making a decision.

"The decision to close is not necessarily just a medical decision," said Acting Health Commissioner George DiFerdinando.

Nationwide, the number of confirmed anthrax cases stands at 17 since the outbreak began in early October. Ten have the inhaled form, including four who died. The others have less-severe skin infections.

(Copyright 2001 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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Author: 6 - ABC, Action News