Fourth death attributed to anthrax

NEW YORK (AP) - A hospital worker with a mysterious case of inhalation anthrax died early yesterday, the nation's fourth fatality in a month of bioterrorism.

Kathy T. Nguyen, 61, died three days after checking herself into Lenox Hill Hospital and being diagnosed as New York City's first case of the inhaled form of the disease.

Also yesterday, a post office spokesman said an employee at a second regional mail facility in New Jersey was suspected to have skin anthrax, and White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said a co-worker of Nguyen has a suspicious lesion that has been tested. There are no results yet, he said at the White House.

"Somebody is trying to kill the American people by sending anthrax through the mail," Fleischer said. "The president believes the actions of the government have saved lives. He regrets that these attacks have resulted in the loss of anybody's life."

Nguyen's illness, and that of a New Jersey accountant who contracted the less serious skin anthrax, complicated the investigation by raising new worries that tainted letters are contaminating other mail or that the spores are sickening people by means other than the mail.

Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health said worries about "cross-contamination" – anthrax spores sticking to pieces of mail at postal facilities – have grown with the new cases.

"We really need to do – the public health officials, the forensic group – has to do a real full court press on trying to track this down. This is critical," he said on NBC's "Today" Show.

Associated Press Medical Editor Daniel Q. Haney contributed to this report.