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Acting
Commissioner Dr. George T. DiFerdinando, Jr. has determined that
workers at the Route 130 Mail Processing Facility in Hamilton Township
facility and the West Trenton facility in Ewing Township as well
as business visitors to the facilities should receive extended antibiotic
treatment from 10- to 60-days.
"I am extending the treatment course of antibiotics because
it is the prudent thing to do," said Dr. DiFerdinando. "Although
it has been my position not to prescribe medication for medication's
sake, protection of the postal workers who have been exposed to
anthrax is the most important consideration."
Dr.
DiFerdinando recommends a 60-day course of antibiotics for
all Hamilton Township and West Trenton postal workers and business
visitors who might have come into the workplace areas dating back
to September 18th. Business visitors include temporary postal workers,
vendors, and contractors. Robert Wood Johnson University Medical
Center is providing the postal workers at Hamilton with the additional
antibiotics.
Dr. DiFerdinando also announced that there is a second possible
inhalational case involving a worker at the Route 130 Mail Processing
Center in Hamilton Township. Specimens were sent today to the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
More
than 1,100 people have received the nasal swab tests from DHSS,
Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Robert Wood
Johnson University Medical Center-Hamilton. To date, more than
800 swabs are negative. Others are still being evaluated. Workers
who received swabs over the weekend will receive results in the
next few days. The swab tests will be used to see where exposures
might have occurred in the facility. A negative swab test does
not mean that a person has not been exposed to anthrax and Dr.
DiFerdinando urged everyone who receives negative test results
to continue antibiotic treatment.
As
of today, the state laboratory has received more than 1,007 environmental
samples, such as envelopes and packages, collected by law enforcement
agencies from across the state. Testing on 553 of those specimens
has been completed and all are negative for anthrax.
The Department has established a bioterrorism phone line at the
Emergency Operations Center at 609-538-6030 that is open between
8 am and 11 pm until further notice. Since the phone line opened
on October 12, 2001, about 1,500 calls have been received. From
11 p.m. to 8 a.m., the number is 609-392-2020. Information is
also available on the website at www.state.nj.us/health.
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