Boca Raton, Fla. ? At supermarkets, in department stores and on the train on the way to work, people want to meet Ernesto Blanco, the man who fought off the inhaled form of anthrax that killed his co-worker.

“Some people who see me on the street, they look at me, thinking, ‘Is that him?”‘ Blanco said. “I guess it’s the price of fame.”

Blanco returned to work last week after 23 days in the hospital and four months of recovery. At one point, he had been near death, but he fought off the anthrax through quick treatment and antibiotics.

The 74-year-old grandfather still delivers office mail at American Media Inc. in Boca Raton, but in a new office building. Authorities believe he inhaled an-thrax spores in the company’s mailroom.

Bob Stevens, a photo editor at American Media and friend of Blanco, died of anthrax on Oct. 5, the first of five deaths after anthrax-laced letters were mailed to journalists, politicians and government offices last fall. Several other people recovered from anthrax infections, but few had become as sick as Blanco.

“I feel perfectly well, thank God,” Blanco said on Friday. “I don’t have any discomfort or anything that you can associate with anthrax. I feel the same I did before I became sick.”

His first day back at work was full of hugs and plaudits from the co-workers he describes as “enchanting.” But it was back to work on Wednesday, just days after the company moved into a new office.

“My doctors found no impediment to prevent me from working,” Blanco said. “I decided not to keep being lazy, so I decided to go talk to the head of the company. They were very amenable.”

Blanco knows he is a survivor. Just four months before his fight with anthrax, he had a stroke while at work. He couldn’t speak and felt numbness in his arm before being admitted to the hospital for four days.

“I don’t think that God has an eye out for me. I know it,” Blanco said.

He said he doesn’t worry about anthrax now doctors say he built anthrax antibodies while taking Cipro. He went off the antibiotic on Dec. 7 but still takes four other medications daily.

“I’m not a person that’s easily scared,” he said. “When I was sick in the hospital in intensive care, I always had faith that I could get out of it.”

Still, he admits his perspective has changed.

“It’s always on my mind. I associate everything to that experience. I can’t remove it from my mind.

Blanco has given telephone interviews to media in Chile, Argentina, Mexico and England and has been featured on network and television news shows. The Miami Dolphins football team invited him to a game, where the players signed a football for him.

A relative has recommended that he try doing commercials, and another has said he would write a book about him, but Blanco has rejected both ideas. He decided not to profit from his experience.

His family, which includes two children, four stepchildren and several grandchildren, sees the return to work as a positive step.

“It’s awesome,” said Maria Orth, Blanco’s stepdaughter. “It’s what we had hoped for. There were times we didn’t think that was going to actually happen.”