Anthrax spreads on Capitol Hill

It is still unclear how the anthrax has spread

US investigators say they have found anthrax in a fifth area of the Capitol complex in Washington.

Police spokesman Dan Nichols said the anthrax was found in a goods lift area of the Senate Hart office building. Last week a letter opened in the office of Senate majority leader Tom Daschle - located in the building - was found to be contaminated with anthrax.

At this point, it is not clear if the few confirmed anthrax exposures were motivated by organised terrorism. But these attacks were clearly meant to terrorise a country already on the edge

FBI Director Robert Mueller

The Washington Post reported that the anthrax spores in Mr Daschle's office had been treated to make them easier to inhale with a type of chemical additive made only by the US, the former Soviet Union and Iraq.

Meanwhile, the US Government has announced that it is buying 100 million pills to treat anthrax from the German pharmaceutical company Bayer.

The Hart building and all other congressional office buildings have been closed since the evening of 17 October as tests for anthrax are carried out.

But one office building - Russell - was reopened on Wednesday.

A Senate media worker who was in the Hart building has been admitted to hospital for possible inhalation anthrax - the most lethal form of the disease.

Five other people - all of them Washington postal workers - are in the same hospital undergoing tests for possible anthrax infection.

No safety guarantees

The US Postmaster General, John Potter, has warned Americans that there can be no guarantees the mail they receive is safe, as the number of confirmed cases of anthrax rises.

Postal staff are being told how to treat suspicious mail

Concerns have been mounting following confirmation that two postal workers from a Washington facility died of the disease, and news that a female postal worker at a New Jersey office is seriously ill with suspected inhalation anthrax.

In an effort to calm nerves, the House of Representatives passed a counter-terrorism bill giving the police more power to tap phones and track internet use, and to impose tougher penalties on terrorists and their supporters.

The bill is expected to quickly pass through the Senate and be signed into law by President George Bush on Friday.

Discount Cipro

Under the deal struck with Bayer, 12 million Americans could be treated immediately for anthrax come 1 January. The US Government will pay the heavily discounted price of 95 cents per pill for the antibiotic Cipro.

Anthrax cases (Source: CDC)

3 deaths (2 in Washington DC, 1 in Florida)

6 cases inhalation anthrax

6 cases skin anthrax

32 exposures

Cipro is being used to protect thousands of postal workers against the disease and the new deal means a much larger supply will be available.

In New Jersey, the female post handler suspected of having inhalation anthrax worked at the mail centre through which anthrax-laced letters addressed to Mr Daschle and NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw passed.

The cases have indicated that letters containing anthrax do not have to be opened to cause a serious threat.

"We're asking people to handle their mail very carefully," Postmaster General John Potter told ABC television. "There are no guarantees that mail is safe."

He also said there was a possibility that a letter which shared a bin with a contaminated letter could itself pick up traces of the bacteria.

Screening delay

Health authorities in Washington have come under increasing fire for the delay in screening postal workers.

New measures should help protect postal workers

Postal workers are angry that Congressional staff were tested immediately after the anthrax-contaminated letter was sent to Mr Daschle last week, but those who had sorted the mail were not tested until five days later.

US Surgeon General David Satcher contended that the public health system was being asked to deal with an issue of which it had virtually no experience.

"The assumption had been that unless letters were opened people could not be contaminated. We were wrong," he said. "This is all new to us."

The postal service has announced it will spend $1bn on new security measures, including machines that use radiation to kill bacteria and spores of diseases like anthrax.

On Tuesday, President Bush also authorised immediate spending of $175m to improve safety at postal facilities.