October 23, 2001	Tuesday	Shaba'an 5, 1422

WASHINGTON, Oct 22: Two postal workers in Washington have died in suspicious circumstances, city health official Ivan Walks said on Monday, confirming two others had contracted the most lethal form of anthrax.

Walks, the director of the Washington Health Department, told a press conference that a second case of inhalation anthrax had been confirmed, following the announcement of Washington’s first case over the weekend.

“In addition to the two confirmed cases, two postal workers who worked in the Brentwood mail facility (in the Washington area) have expired.”

He said that neither of the two fatalities were confirmed cases of anthrax. However, “Our index of suspicion is very high” that the deaths are anthrax related, he added.

“We do not have a confirmation” that the deaths were due to anthrax, he said.

“We have blood culture results that are consistent with ... bacteria. That bacteria is being tested so that we will know its final characterization,” he said

Two thousand US Postal Service employees work in the processing room of the Brentwood facility, USPS spokeswoman Debbie Willhite said.

Walks urged them all on Monday to “immediately come here to DC General (Hospital) to receive prophylactic medication and be evaluated.”

“If you are feeling ill, go to the nearest medical facility.”

Mail bound for the US Congress, where traces of anthrax were found in office buildings on both the Senate and House sides of the Capitol complex, is processed at Brentwood.

Twenty-eight congressional employees who work in and around the office of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle were last Monday exposed to anthrax but so far none has manifested symptoms of the disease, Capitol Hill physician John Eisold has said.

SCARE HITS EMBASSIES: A member of the French embassy in Sri Lanka was treated with antibiotics as an anthrax scare spread in Colombo, officials said on Monday.

A section of the embassy was sealed off after a letter was received containing white powder and the employee who handled the mail was treated with antibiotics as a precautionary measure, deputy head of mission Claudia Delma-Scherer said.

“We have sealed the room where the letter was opened,” she said. “We can’t say immediately from where the letter had originated, but it had contained some white powder.”

The Indian High Commission and the state-run television network also received suspicious letters, officials said.

On Friday, the US and Australian diplomatic missions reported receiving letters and packages containing a white substance which they suspected could be anthrax.

Police speculated that the letters could be a hoax, but medical authorities said investigations were underway.

Anthrax has become a focus of bioterrorism fears recently, especially in the US where several people were found to have been exposed to the disease and one died.

Sri Lanka last week appointed a panel of officials to deal with possible bioterror attacks after a string of anthrax cases in the US.—AFP