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Nevada's Health Official Barbara Hunt Holds Press Conference

Aired October 14, 2001 - 16:32   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
STEPHEN FRAZIER, CNN ANCHOR: Let's now go to Reno, Nevada for a news conference about the discovery of anthrax spores there in a letter mailed to a subsidiary of the Microsoft Corporation. Let's listen in.

BARBARA HUNT, WASHOE COUNTY DISTRICT HEALTH OFFICE: ... strain of anthrax. However, in light of the test results of the individuals tested, that may or may not make a whole lot of difference to us. The important fact is the test on the individuals.

If the test results from the CDC -- even if those are positive, if the results on these other two individuals, whose results we await tomorrow, are negative, it will not matter, because we will have been able to show that the six individuals were not exposed to airborne anthrax.

I should back up for a moment. It would matter in the sense that we would continue to evaluate them for the potential of cutaneous anthrax, which is much less dangerous, is very easy to diagnose, and very easy to treat. We are hoping to have those results from the Centers for Disease Control later this afternoon.

They -- our latest information from the CDC is that they received the specimen this morning at 8:30 our time, and so they've had them for several hours. We are aware there may have been a little bit of a backlog of testing that they had to do, but we're still optimistic that we will hear from them later today.

I think, in sum, our message today is that this is very good news, that we're very optimistic that we will see no human cases of anthrax from this incident, and we will have -- we will have all the information we need by tomorrow to say that with full confidence, that there are no human cases, because now we know we have four who apparently have had no exposure to airborne anthrax.

QUESTION: Are you saying that of the six Microsoft workers who you examined, four you're giving a clean bill of health as of this moment, and two you're still awaiting confirmation of their results?

HUNT: Yes, the only, the only detail to that is that if the Centers for Disease Control test results are positive for a disease causing strain of anthrax, then we would continue to evaluate these individuals for the possibility of cutaneous anthrax, which, as I indicated, is a much less frightening form of the disease because it is easy to diagnose and easy to treat.

And in addition to that, from interviewing these individuals, our investigators have determined that they handled the contents of this letter or this envelope very, very carefully. We think they're exposure in any case was extremely minimal and for that we are highly optimistic that we will see no cases of human anthrax in this situation.

QUESTION: Are there different tests for cutaneous and inhalation forms of anthrax?

HUNT: You -- there are laboratory cultures that are done for both. The difference really between the two is simply the route of entrance of the spore into the body, or the route of infection, and the reason we differentiate more than anything is that the inhalation form of a disease is simply much more likely to be lethal, and is more difficult to diagnose because the initial symptoms are more vague and are similar to other common, ordinary infections.

The cutaneous form is much easier to diagnose simply because there's a very ugly sore that appears and when you're already alert to the possibility of cutaneous anthrax, the patient and the physicians are looking for that, and then it's quite easy to treat with antibiotics.

FRAZIER: We are listening to the comments of Barbara Hunt who is the district health officer for Washoe County in Nevada, explaining what's been happening there in response to the arrival of a letter with contents of which did test positive for anthrax. She's pointing out that six people have been tested, and four so far have turned up negative in any exposure to anthrax on their parts. They're waiting for a little bit more data tomorrow.

Just to take you back, this was a letter that arrived in an office, the Microsoft Licensing Corporation, about 160 people work there. It's in a larger building owned by Sierra Pacific Power Company, about 600 people work there for the utility too. There was a briefing today by health officials of all the employees. They plan to go back on Monday and, so far, according to one worker, the mood among the office is upbeat. Morale is high. Work will continue, and so will too some of the testing, as Ms. Hunt explained there.

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