ANTHRAX, LABORATORY EXPOSURE - USA (MISSISSIPPI)

ANTHRAX, LABORATORY EXPOSURE - USA (MISSISSIPPI)
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International Society for Infectious Diseases
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Date: Mon 13 Aug 2007 18:23:30 -0700 (PDT)
Source: ABC WAPT.com [edited]
<http:​//www.wapt.com/news/13882436/detail.html?rss=jac&psp=news>

A graduate student at Jackson's University Medical Center had to be
treated for anthrax exposure over the weekend [11-12 Aug 2007].

The student was putting a flask of anthrax cells into a shaker when
the shaker broke, hospital officials said. According to University
Medical Center, the student followed all biosafety rules, and the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was notified.

The graduate student was treated as a precaution and sent home.

--
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail Rapporteur Brent Barrett

[Back in the good old days when there were merely some 100 or so
individuals worldwide doing research on _Bacillus anthracis_ we would
hear of such occasional misadventures, usually as a result of tubes
collapsing during ultracentrifugation with spores going everywhere.
In my own laboratory, because we had been sent so many archival
contaminated and misidentified cultures, there was a strict
prohibition on even thinking of any manipulations involving the
Sterne strain -- one national and respected national collection
shared with us was 20 percent Sterne. Spores fly and especially
Sterne.

So I refuse to shake a finger at my colleagues in Mississippi except
to note that they had promptly reported their accident. On the other
hand in the flood of research money and with over 300 US institutes
certified to handle _B. anthracis_ -- to what productive purpose is
not always obvious -- it is of real concern because, whatever the
research objectives, they all seem to insist on having and handling
"Ames", which is one of the more virulent strains, and accidents will
happen and laboratory contamination will occur, and possibly
accumulate, vide USAMRIID (United States Army Medical Research
Institute for infectious diseases). There is also the risk of a
culture quietly walking when so many laboratories have them. -
Mod.MHJ]

[see also:
2002
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Anthrax, laboratory exposure - USA (Md) (03) 20020427.4044
Anthrax, laboratory exposure - USA (Md) (02) 20020425.4028
Anthrax, laboratory exposure - US (Md) 20020422.4008
2001
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Anthrax - USA: fingerprint questions 20011024.2625]
...................................mhj/mj/lm
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