Second postal worker has inhalation anthrax

A second Washington postal worker has contracted inhalation anthrax, US health officials said today.

They added that they were investigating the deaths of two other employees at the same post office for any connection to the disease.

Dr Ivan Walks, the city’s chief health official, said the unidentified man with the disease was admitted to the same hospital in suburban Virginia, where another postal worker was diagnosed at the weekend.

He said tests were being run on clinical samples from the two men who have died under conditions that aroused the suspicions of local officials.

Authorities are investigating as many as nine more cases that have aroused concern, he added.

Dr Walks said he did not know how many of the nine were postal workers or how many were in hospital.

Tests were being carried out on clinical samples from the two postal workers who died. In one case, he said, preliminary blood testing had further aroused suspicion that anthrax may have played a role.

In the case of the second person, he said: ‘‘We do not have even the positive blood cultures ... but his clinical course is highly suspicious.’’