Kathy T. Nguyen, 61, died three days after checking herself into the hospital and being diagnosed as the city's first case of the inhaled form of the disease.

Hospital spokeswoman Ann Silverman said Nguyen died this morning. She would not provide any other details.

A postal employee at South Jersey mail facility is suspected to have skin anthrax, a spokesman for the post office said. The employee works in the Bellmawr regional mail facility in Camden County, about 35 miles from the Hamilton postal facility which handled at least three anthrax-tainted letters.

Acting Gov. Donald T. DiFrancesco told Fox News that the employee has tested positive for skin anthrax. A spokesman for the Health Department said the office did not have any information on the case.

Nguyen had been sedated, intubated and put on a ventilator and was too sick to help the health and criminal investigators who are trying to find the source of her infection by reconstructing her social life, her commute and her on-the-job routines at the Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital on the East Side.

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

The latest victims raised the number of confirmed anthrax cases to 17 nationwide since the outbreak began in the first week of October. Ten of the victims have the inhaled form, and four have now died. Seven others have less-severe skin infections.

Four of those skin-anthrax cases - and two more suspected cases - are linked to city media outlets.

Nguyen, who lived alone and commuted to the hospital by subway from the Bronx, worked in a basement supply room. Until recently, the space had included a mailroom, but there was no evidence of any suspicious letter and the first environmental samples from the hospital were negative.

"Almost everyone in the hospital came in contact with her," because she delivered supplies to various departments and offices, said Thomas Rich, a coworker.

As many as 2,000 hospital workers patients and visitors who have been to the hospital since Oct. 11 are being offered antibiotics, officials said yesterday. The hospital was closed, and other hospitals in the city were alerted to take precautions and report any suspicions.

Four New Jersey postal workers have confirmed cases of anthrax. Another was treated with antibiotics before his suspected case of skin anthrax could be confirmed.

Those employees worked at either the Hamilton regional mail processing center or the West Trenton post office.

A sixth person, a Hamilton woman who did not work for the Postal Service or visit any post office recently, also has skin anthrax.

The latest suspected case is a male employee who works as a mail processor in Bellmawr, according to post office spokesman Ray Daiutolo.

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