Health officials expect more anthrax cases

WASHINGTON -- The nation's top health officials said Friday they expect more people to fall ill from anthrax and they fear the investigation may be handicapped because they don't know how many labs have the lethal bacteria.

Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said he is bracing for the discovery of more anthrax letters in the truckloads of decontaminated mail that postal authorities are tediously sorting.

"Common sense would tell you that it's possible," Thompson told The Associated Press. "There's a lot of mail that hasn't been delivered in the last three weeks. They may be able to find another letter."

One of his top bioterrorism advisers, Dr. D. A. Henderson, predicted that more people are likely to become infected before the anthrax-by-mail scare recedes.

"If we're looking at the curve now ... one would have to say there are probably going to be more cases," said Henderson, a world authority on infectious diseases.

Thompson urged Americans to keep it in perspective.

"I also want people to understand that 269 people are going to die in an automobile accident each and every day. Five thousand people died last year from food poisoning. Twenty thousand people died last year from the flu," Thompson said.