Skip to main content
CNN.com /TRANSCRIPTS
CNN TV
EDITIONS
SERVICES
CNN TV
EDITIONS


CNN LIVE EVENT/SPECIAL

D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams and Chief Health Official Dr. Ivan Walks Update the Press on the Testing of Postal Facilities for Anthrax

Aired October 30, 2001 - 16:44   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: I am told that the mayor of Washington, Anthony Williams is just about to begin a news conference. It looks like he has gotten under way. Let's listen to him now.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

MAYOR ANTHONY WILLIAMS (D), DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: ... exposure who have a clinical illness with features that suggest that it is most likely not anthrax related but are still under evaluation, and then 108 cases under the category of no apparent anthrax disease. These are patients with potential anthrax exposure that have been clinically evaluated and appear to have no current anthrax disease.

We also have report a as of 3:11 p.m., an environmental assessment of Washington area postal facilities receiving mail directly from the Brentwood mail distribution and processing center conducted by the CDC, this is as of 3:11 p.m.. As you know from last week, to put a firewall, to put a fire break around this, our goal was to provide treatment and appropriate treating for all these first- order facilities. Those are facilities that receive mail directly from the Brentwood facility.

The number of post office facilities and the testing status: 32 post office facilities have confirmed negative environmental testing results to date. Three post office facilities have confirmed positive environmental tests results to date. Eight post office facilities were -- in addition -- were tested with results pending. And five post office facilities are still pending environmental testing. This handout will be made available to you.

Before I turn this over to Dr. Walks for further information and briefing to you, I want to also recognize with us, two councilmen, Kathy Patterson is the chair of the Judiciary Committee, which is our public safety committee, if you will, here in the district and she represents Ward Three and she is with us today. Friendship Heights is in Ward Three.

Councilman Phil Mendelson is a councilman at large and he has been with us throughout this episode as well and we want to acknowledge his presence with that I am going to turn this over to Ivan Walks, who is the chief health officer of the District of Columbia -- Ivan. DR. IVAN WALKS, D.C. CHIEF HEALTH OFFICER: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Good afternoon everyone. We have a continuing public health story today. I think it is important to first recognize that as the mayor instructed us to us do last week, we reached out to ensure that we had a fire break around the suspected anthrax cases.

To date, that fire break has been showing to hold. We announced several days ago now, that those mailrooms that receive mail in bulk from the Brentwood facility, the people who do the same kind of work that mail handlers do, they unbundle mail, they unstrap it, they sort it, they put it into mailboxes in a business, they hand it out, people who behave that way in their job processing mail, they should have already come to D.C. General to get medications.

To that end, our partners in Maryland and Virginia, Dr. George Benjamin, the secretary of health for the state of Maryland, Dr. Ann Peterson, the commissioner of health for the stated of Virginia, both of them have sent out that same directive. And they have opened sites in Maryland and Virginia for folks who behave like mail handlers behave in their jobs to come and receive medication.

Additionally, folks from the media, some of you, actually some of you in this room are on medication that have been in those back work areas where people work, processing mail. You have actually started your ten-day supply of medication. There has been some ongoing confusion about the ten-day supply. Are we saying that people who get a ten-day supply only need ten days worth of medication? We are not.

What we are saying is, following the mayor's directive, public health and safety comes first. If you are in a risk category, you get your ten-day supply of medication right away. You come, you get your medication, you are safe. You are taking those medications, you will not get sick with anthrax while you are taking those medications. The inhalation anthrax, the one we are very much afraid of, the one that has killed people already the one that we continue to fight, if you take those medications, you won't get sick from that. That is why the ten days.

Now what does that mean at the end of the ten days? It means that we have ten days time while you are safe, to work on the science, to characterize the anthrax bacteria, to ensure that we give you the medication that will keep you safe for as long as you are prescribed that medication.

Let me tell you why I'm saying it that way: Some folks have already been switched to doxycycline from Cipro. We have already talked about that for the last few days. A 60-day supply of medication should go to everyone who worked in that back area in Brentwood. If you worked back there as a postal employee or your work took you into that backroom, 60 days medication. You started on Cipro, now you are on Doxy, or you will be switched to doxycycline over the next couple of days as your ten-day supply runs out.

If you are in a facility that has tested positive, those folks who work in the southwest facility, those folks who work in Friendship Heights, those folks who work at the Dulles facility, the mail facility near Dulles, those folks need to get their 60-day medication because they were in a place with confirmed anthrax or confirmed...

WOODRUFF: We are listening to Washington, D.C. public health official Dr. Ivan Walks and Washington, D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams outline the status of the anthrax outbreak here in Washington. Just to very quickly sum up: We heard the mayor saying a total of 32 post office facilities have been tested so far. At three of them so far there have been positive environmental results.

And we know two of those were announced just this morning. A couple of them in residential areas of Washington. And he said that a number of other test results are still pending. And then what you heard Dr. Walks talking about was the rational for having people take the ten-day regimen of antibiotic while the tests are being done to determine whether they should take the full 60 days. So, an update. No particular new news here but just underlining that three different post offices in Washington have had positive test for anthrax.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com


 
 
 
 


 Search   

Back to the top