Good prognosis given to child who has skin form of anthrax

NEW YORK -- The 7-month-old son of an ABC News producer has developed the skin form of anthrax after recently spending time in the newsroom, authorities and network officials said Monday.

The boy, the youngest of the four Americans diagnosed with the disease this month, is responding to antibiotics and is expected to recover, ABC News President David Westin said.

"The prognosis is excellent," he said.

ABC is the second major news organization in New York to report an anthrax case in the past three days. Authorities are also investigating a letter that apparently infected an NBC employee with the same form of anthrax last week. Like the boy, she is also expected to recover.

Authorities did not discuss the source of the germ involving the child. Westin said the network is operating under the assumption that the exposure happened at its offices on West 66th Street.

The child visited the ABC newsroom in the last few weeks, probably on Sept. 28, Westin said. He developed a rash, and was hospitalized with an unknown ailment soon after the visit.

The boy was believed to have been on two floors of the ABC building for a couple of hours, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said. Westin said the child is the son of a female producer, but did not release names.

Giuliani said investigators would be interviewing ABC employees to recreate the circumstances in which the child may have been exposed.

The child has skin-contracted anthrax -- not the more lethal inhaled form that infected two Florida men, killing one.

Westin said officials learned of the diagnosis Monday evening through blood tests and a biopsy.

"There are no other instances that we are aware of," he said. "We will continue to report the news."

Dr. Steve Berman, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said parents shouldn't overreact because of the case.

"I think the first thing to do is to stay calm," he said in an interview with AP Radio. "There is no benefit to going out and taking antibiotics. I think that is just not going to help."

In the past three days, the nation's news organizations have tightened security, particularly in mailrooms. The Associated Press, across the street from NBC, temporarily closed its mailroom Friday, as did CBS.

ABC stopped internal mail delivery in New York and Washington to allow a security evaluation, while CNN closed mailrooms in New York, Washington and Atlanta.

New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik said police will go to media outlets in the city to make sure they are free of anthrax. Giuliani said there would be an environmental review "to make sure the premises and the area are safe."

At the AP Monday night, eight officers from the Police Department's Emergency Service Unit -- one wearing a protective biohazard suit complete with respirators -- took spot swipes from the countertops and other surfaces in the mailroom looking for any anthrax residue. The swipes will be tested at a city health department lab.

At NBC, hundreds of employees are taking the anthrax antibiotic Cipro as a precaution. The employee who was infected is an assistant to "Nightly News" anchorman Tom Brokaw.

It will be at least a week until the "Nightly News" staff can return to their offices.