New York ? Seven people have been given antibiotics as a precaution against anthrax after a drum maker who imported raw animal hides became infected with the disease, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Thursday.

The seven people being treated may have been exposed to the hides, which authorities suspect carried anthrax spores.

Vado Diomande, a drum maker and dancer, traveled in December to Ivory Coast, in West Africa, and became ill shortly after he returned, bringing several goat hides with him.

Diomande collapsed after performing last week with his dance company in Mansfield, Pa. He remained in stable condition Thursday at a hospital in Sayre, Pa.