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Disease experts give tips on opening mail

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- As investigators continue to look into the possibility that two Northeastern women contracted inhalation anthrax via cross-contaminated mail, disease experts Thursday offered suggestions about how to handle mail safely.

"Though the risk of contracting inhalation anthrax from cross-contaminated mail is very, very low, it is not zero," said Dr. Jeffrey Koplan, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The "easily done, common-sense steps" -- which he said are not "scientifically proven" -- include handing "suspicious" mail over to local law enforcement officials, keeping letters away from one's face and not blowing into or sniffing envelopes, he said.

"Don't do anything that would promote contents floating into the air," such as "vigorous tearing" or shredding, he urged.

After handling mail, recipients should wash their hands, he added.

Investigators are continuing to pursue the possibility that cross-contamination of letters may have infected 94-year-old widow Ottilie Lundgren in Oxford, Connecticut, and 51-year-old hospital worker Kathy Nguyen, in New York City. Both women died of the disease.

But, if they did contract the bacteria via the mail, they were victims of bad luck, he said. Two mail processing centers that were contaminated with anthrax spores handled some 85 million pieces of mail before they were shut and no other cases of anthrax appear to be linked to mail from the centers, he said.

They are the Hamilton, New Jersey, facility and the Brentwood center in Washington, D.C., both of which handled two anthrax-laden letters to Sens. Tom Daschle, D-South Dakota, and Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont.

"If there is a risk from cross-contaminated mail, it is very low," Koplan said, adding that "the mail is, by and large, very safe."

Meanwhile, authorities are trying to construct an hour-by-hour accounting of the last days of Lundgren's life, Koplan said. Tests of her clothing and household effects have not yet shown any hint of anthrax.

"We don't have all the answers to this," he said. "There are large parts that are unknown that we're hoping to sort out and get answers to."

Koplan said Lundgren's advanced age could have made her immune system more vulnerable to the disease. But authorities have determined that Nguyen was 51, not 61 as originally reported.

"That seems pretty young to me, and I wouldn't invoke the same argument of a diminished immunologic system."



 
 
 
 



RELATED SITE:
• CDC: Public Health Preparedness and Response

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