Just Imagine What Would Have Happened If Saddam Had Attacked Us With It!

Even though it’s naturally occurring and accidental, it’s still dangerous:

The authorities widened their investigation into possible anthrax contamination yesterday to include an apartment in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, and medical officials were giving antibiotics to seven people who could have been exposed to the spores.

An eight-member team from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including two epidemiologists, along with F.B.I. agents, took samples yesterday from the Manhattan apartment of the man who had contracted anthrax, the Brooklyn warehouse where he used animal skins to make drums for his African dance troupe and a Dodge van that he is believed to have used to transport the skins, which are a suspected source of the bacteria. The results of the laboratory tests might not be available for several days, officials said.

The anthrax patient, Vado Diomande, 44, has been hospitalized in Pennsylvania since he collapsed after an African dance performance at Mansfield University on Feb. 16. He was in stable condition yesterday at Robert Packer Hospital in Sayre, Pa. Officials believe he inhaled the anthrax while working with untreated animal hides brought over from Africa.

. . .

In Manhattan, the police sealed Mr. Diomande’s fifth-floor apartment in Greenwich Village, but other building residents were allowed to enter and leave. The authorities also sealed the Brooklyn building where Mr. Diomande worked, an eight-story warehouse at 2 Prince Street, near the foot of the Manhattan Bridge. While the building is mostly used as storage, it also contains several recording and art studios.

Investigators from the federal team — four industrial hygienists, two epidemiologists, one biologist and one laboratory scientist — collected samples from the apartment and the van, while F.B.I. agents took samples from the warehouse. The city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is analyzing the samples. A C.D.C. spokesman, Thomas W. Skinner, said officials expected to collect more samples today.

. . .

Officials continued trying to reach people who had contact recently with Mr. Diomande or the animal skins he had handled. They reached four of his associates on Wednesday and three more yesterday. One of the seven people taking antibiotics is Mr. Diomande’s wife, Lisa, who accompanied him to the musical performance on Feb. 16 and has been with him since.

A Crown Heights man who reported contact with the animal hides is being given preventive treatment along with his family, the city said in a flier distributed last night at the man’s building, 1100 Dean Street. Neither the man nor anyone in his family is ill, the notice said, but city and federal health officials cordoned off the building late last night. None of the seven people are believed to be at risk of contracting anthrax, Mr. Bloomberg said, adding that antibiotics were an appropriate cautionary measure.

Then there’s the understatement of the week:

“Obviously, the fact that anthrax got into the country and it got through Customs without being detected raises questions,” said Representative Peter T. King, a Republican from Long Island, who is chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. “We will have to have an after-action report to find out what happened and what has to be changed in the future.”