An editorial assistant at The New Yorker may be the latest known Manhattan media worker to have been infected with anthrax.
City officials yesterday afternoon announced they just discovered another possible case dating from September – when other media people were infected – that hadn’t been reported previously.
And even though blood test results came back negative last evening, health officials said the editorial staffer may have had the disease.
The staffer treated himself with antibiotics, which “could have affected the blood samples,” and the lesion, found once on his hand, had healed, said Greg Butler, a New York City Health Department spokesman.
Without a skin biopsy, “this blood test is not definitive,” said Butler. “It may be possible that this one case may remain inconclusive.”
Upon hearing the “negative but inconclusive” results, New Yorker spokeswoman Perri Dorset said, “We’re feeling a bit better than we did earlier in the day, but we’re still waiting for the final results of the environmental tests.”
Maurie Perl, a spokeswoman for New Yorker publisher Conde Nast, said the Conde Nast building at 4 Times Square was undergoing additional tests for anthrax, and added previous tests were negative.
Conde Nast CEO Steve Florio sent a memo to employees yesterday afternoon saying a twenty-something male editorial assistant, who handles mail as part of his duties at The New Yorker, discovered a suspicious lesion in late September.
According to city officials, The New Yorker employee’s symptoms first appeared on Sept. 23. On Oct. 12 he went to a dermatologist, who sent the tests to a privately-run laboratory, which investigators theorize was not equipped to handle the anthrax analysis. The results came back negative.
The victim then medicated himself because he had another, unrelated skin condition, Health Commissioner Dr. Neal Cohen said.
This past Tuesday, the victim sought the opinion of a second doctor, who called the Health Department.
POISONED APPLE
Here are the known cases of anthrax here in New York City.
Cutaneous Anthrax
The New Yorker Magazine 1 (suspected case)
ABC: 1
CBS: 1
NBC: 1
New York Post: 3
Inhalation Anthrax
Manhattan Eye, Ear & Throat Hospital: 1
(Kathy Nguyen, 61, of The Bronx, died Oct. 31.)