FBI takes over Florida anthrax case

BOCA RATON, Fla. -- The FBI took over the investigation of a Florida man's anthrax death on Monday after the germ was found in the nose of a co-worker and on a computer keyboard in their office.

"We regard this as an investigation that could become a clear criminal investigation," Attorney General John Ashcroft said during a news conference in Washington. "We don't have enough information to know whether this could be related to terrorism or not."

The FBI sealed off the Boca Raton office building housing the supermarket tabloid The Sun, where the men worked. How the bacterial spores got into the newspaper's office was still under investigation.

More than 200 people lined up for antibiotics and anthrax tests by late afternoon.

Anthrax cannot be spread from person to person, but all 300 employees in the building -- and anyone who spent more than an hour inside since Aug. 1 -- were advised to visit Palm Beach County's health agency. Antibiotics can be used to treat anthrax, though the form that caused last week's death is particularly lethal.

Health officials said there was no public health threat, even to building employees. "The risk is low," said Dr. John Agwunobi, Florida secretary of health.

Ashcroft said the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta were providing expertise in the case. Florida Lt. Gov. Frank Brogan confirmed the FBI was in control of the investigation.

Bob Stevens, 63, a photo editor for The Sun, died Friday of inhalation anthrax, an extremely rare and deadly form of the disease. The last such death in the United States was in 1976.

On Monday, officials said another Sun employee had anthrax bacteria in his nasal passages. Relatively large anthrax spores that lodge in the upper respiratory tract are less dangerous than smaller spores that get into the lungs.

The co-worker was in stable condition at a Miami-Dade County hospital, said health officials. He had been tested for anthrax because he happened to be in a hospital for an unrelated and undisclosed illness.