Staff and agencies

Friday October 12, 2001

An NBC employee in New York today tested positive for

anthrax.

The announcement comes in the midst of a criminal

investigation into an outbreak of the disease in Florida that has

so far killed one man and infected two others.

But it is not the same variety - respiratory anthrax - that killed a

British employee in the headquarters of a Florida-based

newspaper empire in Florida, NBC News said in a statement.

NBC's employee tested positive for a skin infection. A woman,

who was not identified, has received treatment and is responding

well.

The FBI and Centre for Disease Control (CDC) are investigating

but the FBI has said that the case is not linked to terrorism.

NBC said it had received some suspicious mail and immediately

contacted the FBI, CDC and the New York department of health.

"The mail was tested by these organisations, and the employee

was treated by several physicians. All these tests came back

negative," said the NBC statement.

"However, this morning, a later test on the employee came back

positive for traces of cutaneous [skin] anthrax."

The New York mayor, Rudolph Giuliani, said that there are "very

good" chances that the outbreak in New York has been

contained.