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A State Department contract employee who handles mail has tested positive for anthrax, a department spokesman said Thursday.

The infection marks the first case of anthrax to strike a federal employee outside the U.S. Postal Service.

The unidentified male employee works at State's main postal facility in Sterling, Va., according to State Department spokesman Richard Boucher. The Sterling facility has been closed, and officials with the Centers for Disease Control are performing environmental tests at the site to check for anthrax, he said.

Department officials do not know how the employee became infected. "Where and how he was infected is not known," said Boucher.

The employee is being treated at an area hospital. Boucher did not say whether the employee has cutaneous anthrax or the inhaled form of the disease, which is considered more virulent.

All State Department mail handlers were put on antibiotics yesterday, Boucher said, and State employees at the Sterling facility are being screened for anthrax exposure. In addition, State plans to test all department mail facilities that receive mail from the U.S. Postal Service's main Washington facility on Brentwood Road, where two employees have died from anthrax infections.

The State Department is not accepting mail at the present time.