- LANTANA, Fla. (AP) -
Relatives
of a Florida man who contracted a fatal case of anthrax are being given
antibiotics as a precaution and his co-workers have been tested and
cleared,
health authorities said Saturday.
-
- The search to find out how 63-year-old Bob Stevens
contracted
the rare and extremely lethal inhaled form of the disease expanded one
day after his death.
-
- More than 50 health and law enforcement officials have
fanned out across Palm Beach County to track his movements over the past
two months and look for other possible cases. Officials are also going
over medical records in four North Carolina counties that he might have
visited recently.
-
- "We have a long chronology of common activities
we need to pursue,'' Florida epidemiologist Dr. Steven Wiersma said.
"We
don't have any really hot leads at this time.''
-
- Investigators are awaiting test results from soil and
other specimens. The results could take days.
-
- No other cases of anthrax have been reported in the area.
Wiersma said several of Stevens' co-workers at the supermarket tabloid
The Sun have been tested, but results were negative. Antibiotics are being
given to close family members.
-
- Officials have said there is no evidence that Stevens
was the victim of terrorism. Wiersma said tests of Stevens' blood helped
confirm that belief because the anthrax in the sample responded to
penicillin.
Anthrax developed by some countries as a biological weapon could be
resistant
to the antibiotic, he said.
-
- The Sept. 11 hijackings have put many people on edge
about bioterrorism.
-
- Officials believe Stevens contracted anthrax naturally
in Florida. The disease can be contracted from farm animals or soil, though
the bacterium is not normally found among wildlife or livestock in the
state. Stevens was described as an avid outdoorsman who enjoyed fishing
and gardening.
-
- Investigators have cast a wide net in their search in
Florida.
-
- County medical examiners are looking over any unexplained
deaths, but have not found any cases connected to anthrax. Veterinarians
have been told to be on alert for animals who might have the disease, but
none have turned up.
-
- Investigators also are visiting restaurants, parks and
other locations he frequented or even visited casually, Wiersma
said.
-
- Health officials are checking intensive care units of
area hospitals to check records going back 30 days for suspicious cases.
They should be finished Monday, said Tim O'Connor, a county health department spokesman. The disease has an incubation period of up to 60 days.
-
- Meanwhile, the health department is fielding hundreds
of calls from worried or curious citizens. Some want to know what the
symptoms
are, while others ask where they can get a vaccine to prevent the spread
of the disease, O'Connor said. They are told a vaccine is available only
to the military, but they are not at risk because the disease is not
contagious,
he said.
-
- Only 18 inhalation cases in the United States were
documented
in the 20th century, the most recent in 1976 in California. The last
anthrax
case in Florida was in 1974, according to the state health
department.
-
- Stevens lived on the same street in this quiet West Palm
Beach suburb for 23 years. He and his wife raised their four children,
now adults, and British-born Stevens - who became a U.S. citizen - raised
his American flag on holidays.
-
- As word of his death spread through the community Friday
evening, a worker at a nearly nursery school stopped by his home to drop
off cards made by preschool children.
-
- Stevens loved fishing, neighbors said, and would take
his next-door-neighbor's 10-year-old boy fishing twice a month.
-
- "It just seems like a horrible dream that you can't
wake up from,'' said neighbor Mary Crandell, whose granddaughter had taken
drawing lessons from Stevens for years.
-
- "She's really outgoing and I contribute that to
him,'' Crandell said. "He always had time for her.''
-
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2001
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