Spring Break
Anthrax victim ‘doing great’
Issue date: 10/22/01 Section: News
- Page 1 of 1
By AMANDA RIDDLE
Associated Press
BOCA RATON, Fla. — A supermarket tabloid mailroom worker infected with inhaled anthrax is “doing great,” and his stepdaughter said Saturday she’s anxious for his release from the hospital.
Ernesto Blanco, 73, was responding to antibiotics at Cedars Medical Center in Miami, and doctors say the anthrax toxins in his body were slowly being diminished, Maria Orth said. He has been hospitalized 19 days. The hospital has declined comment on Blanco’s case, citing patient confidentiality.
“He’s doing great,” Orth said. “He’s kind of depressed to be there because it’s been so long.”
Doctors haven’t said when Blanco could be released, Orth said. Family members visit him daily in a private room, where he was moved Thursday.
Earlier this month, photo editor Robert Stevens of The Sun, an American Media Inc. tabloid, died of inhaled anthrax. Blanco is also infected with the usually lethal form of the disease; another co-worker has tested positive for exposure.
Postal officials said Friday that an anthrax-tainted letter that infected the employees may have been mailed to an old address before being rerouted to the company’s headquarters.
Trace amounts of anthrax were found at a postal facility in Lake Worth that once processed mail for The National Enquirer and Weekly World News, which both now have offices in the American Media building.
Postal officials said a letter mailed to the tabloids’ old address could have been processed at the Lake Worth facility, then rerouted to another facility in Boca Raton where anthrax spores were found earlier this week. The Boca Raton office was handling American Media’s mail at the time the tainted letter was delivered.
“It’s plausible that one letter could account for all three locations testing positive,” U.S. Postal Service spokesman Joseph Breckenridge said Friday. He said no employees were considered to be at risk.
Associated Press
BOCA RATON, Fla. — A supermarket tabloid mailroom worker infected with inhaled anthrax is “doing great,” and his stepdaughter said Saturday she’s anxious for his release from the hospital.
Ernesto Blanco, 73, was responding to antibiotics at Cedars Medical Center in Miami, and doctors say the anthrax toxins in his body were slowly being diminished, Maria Orth said. He has been hospitalized 19 days. The hospital has declined comment on Blanco’s case, citing patient confidentiality.
“He’s doing great,” Orth said. “He’s kind of depressed to be there because it’s been so long.”
Doctors haven’t said when Blanco could be released, Orth said. Family members visit him daily in a private room, where he was moved Thursday.
Earlier this month, photo editor Robert Stevens of The Sun, an American Media Inc. tabloid, died of inhaled anthrax. Blanco is also infected with the usually lethal form of the disease; another co-worker has tested positive for exposure.
Postal officials said Friday that an anthrax-tainted letter that infected the employees may have been mailed to an old address before being rerouted to the company’s headquarters.
Trace amounts of anthrax were found at a postal facility in Lake Worth that once processed mail for The National Enquirer and Weekly World News, which both now have offices in the American Media building.
Postal officials said a letter mailed to the tabloids’ old address could have been processed at the Lake Worth facility, then rerouted to another facility in Boca Raton where anthrax spores were found earlier this week. The Boca Raton office was handling American Media’s mail at the time the tainted letter was delivered.
“It’s plausible that one letter could account for all three locations testing positive,” U.S. Postal Service spokesman Joseph Breckenridge said Friday. He said no employees were considered to be at risk.