The number of accidental infection at biolabs grows

Last week we reported that the license of Texas A&M to conduct biodefense research was suspended because the university failed to report to the Center for Disease Control and Prvention (CDC) that there were two instances of researchers being infected with pathogens at the school’s lab. The incidents at Texas A&M are indicative of a broader problem: Deadly germs may be more likely to be spread due to a biodefence lab accident than a biological attack by terrorists. The New Scientist’s Deborah McKenzie writes that plague, anthrax, Rocky Mountain spotted fever are among the bioweapons experts fear might be used in a germ warfare attack against the United States, but the public has had near-misses with these diseases and others over the past five years because of accidents in labs where work on defense against bioterrorism is done. The problem is only going to increase: There are now 20,000 people at 400 sites around the United States working with bioweapons germs — a twn-fold increase over the numbers of researchers working on bioweapons before 9/11.

Here is a sample:

—At the University of New Mexico, one worker was jabbed with an anthrax-laden needle, and another with a syringe containing an undisclosed, genetically engineered microbe

—At the Medical University of Ohio, workers were exposed to and infected with Valley Fever

—At the University of Chicago, there was another puncture with an undisclosed agent normally requiring heavy containment, probably anthrax or plague

—At the University of California at Berkeley, workers handled deadly Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, which spreads in the air, without containment when it was mislabelled as harmless

—At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, workers were exposed to TB when containment equipment failed

None of the accidents has been serious in outcome.