HARTFORD, CT (Reuters) – A 94-year-old woman from a rural Connecticut town died Wednesday after having been confirmed to have contracted inhalation anthrax, hospital officials said.

The woman, Ottilie W. Lundgren, lived alone in Oxford, a rural town some 45 miles southwest of Hartford. This is the first new case of anthrax in the US in 3 weeks.

The Connecticut woman, who lived alone and had limited mobility, was treated at Griffin Hospital in Derby, Connecticut

Connecticut Governor John Rowland said there was no indication how the 94-year-old woman had contracted the disease but that authorities were closely looking at the mail system and postal employees would be given antibiotics as a preventive measure. He said authorities had checked the woman's local post office as late as November 11 and had found no problems there.

State and local police health officials along with FBI agents were testing the woman's home and interviewing relatives and acquaintances to determine how she might have contracted anthrax.

This case, along with news on Tuesday that the offices of two more senators in Washington tested positive for traces of anthrax, could revive fears of bioterrorism following the September 11 attacks on the United States.

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[PUBL] – Minnesota advises halt to elective knee surgery due to deaths; CDC seeks reports of similar cases

Last Updated: 2001-11-21 12:56:49 EST (Reuters Health)

By Emma Hitt, PhD

ATLANTA (Reuters Health) – In response to three deaths from infection in previously healthy people undergoing knee surgery, the Minnesota Department of Health is recommending that all elective knee surgery in Minnesota be suspended pending findings of the investigation.

According to a notice published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the agency's November 23rd issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the source of infection with Clostridium sordellii in one patient, and the cause of death in all three patients, remain unknown.

Two patients died on November 11, and one died on November 16, within 24 hours of symptom onset and between 1 to 4 days following surgery. The surgeries, two total knee replacements and one cartilage graft implantation, were performed at two Minnesota hospitals.

"Symptoms included severe abdominal pain and a sudden decline in blood pressure followed by a fulminant course with death within 24 hours of symptom onset," CDC researchers note. "The clinical course was consistent with septic or cardiogenic shock."

Because of the deaths, the CDC is now seeking reports of patients who have had orthopedic surgery since October 1, 2001, involving the knee or other large joint, and who have had similar unexplainable symptoms of cardiogenic or septic shock or abdominal pain requiring intensive care.

The CDC advises that clinicians should report such patients to their state health department or to the CDC's Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, telephone 800-893-0485.

"We are working with clinician networks around the country to see if we can detect any additional cases elsewhere," Dr. Julie Gerberding, the acting deputy director of the CDC's National Center for Infectious Diseases, said during a press teleconference Wednesday. "Now we have no confirmed additional cases, but monitoring is in full swing," she said.

According to Dr. Daniel Jernigan, the medical epidemiologist heading the CDC's investigation, C. sordellii is a "very rare" cause of nosocomial infection. So far, testing has not been completed for the other two cases.

MMWR 2001;50:1035-1036.