NEW YORK, Feb. 22 (Xinhuanet) -- A man who makes drums with raw animal hides from Africa has been hospitalized after he was accidentally exposed to inhalation anthrax, officials said Wednesday.

    The 44-year-old man, a Manhattan resident, had traveled in December to Ivory Coast in west Africa and became ill last Thursday during a trip to Pennsylvania, said Mayor Michael Bloomberg at a press conference Wednesday afternoon.

    There was no evidence of any criminal intent or terrorist connection, the mayor said.

    The infected man, whose identity was withheld, is now recovering in a hospital in Sayre, Pennsylvania, where he is in an Intensive Care Unit listed in fair condition. Four people who may have directly handled the same animal hides as him are being treated with antibiotics as a precaution.

    The man makes African drums from animal skins and is believed to have been exposed to the anthrax after he worked with unprocessed cow and goat hides that he had purchased on a visit to the Ivory Coast.

    Authorities have sealed off the man's work and storage area and his residence, as well as his car, to check for any signs of anthrax.

    Anthrax is a potentially deadly agent that naturally occurs in animals such as goats and cows.

    In the weeks following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, letters laced with anthrax were discovered in several locations around the country, including in New York. The attacks, which remain unsolved,killed five people and sickened 17. Enditem