All who worked at the lab have all been vaccinated to protect
as well as family members but according to the story here the vaccine would not have helped in his situation. This was fast as he woke with a rash and then died on the way to the hospital from a heart attack. Cal-OSHA is investigating and stated they are verifying that this was the same bacteria he was working with. Back in 2001 we had an ex-Pfizer researcher speak out about safety in labs as she suffered exposure due to unsafe working conditions. BD
Ex-Pfizer Scientist wins $1.37 Million in Lawsuit Against Pfizer in Biotech Viral Exposure Lawsuit
Lab workers at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs medical center will be urged to get vaccinations for the diseases they study as a precaution as investigators continue looking into a researcher's death after he handled a rare strain of bacteria, officials said Thursday.
Richard Din, the meningitis research associate who died Saturday in a possible lab exposure, wasn't vaccinated for the illness despite Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations to the contrary. Nonetheless, the VA's Harry Lampiris said a vaccine may not have protected Din, 25, because he was helping to develop a vaccine for a meningitis strain resistant to vaccine.
"Laboratory-acquired infection represents an occupational hazard unique to laboratory workers, especially those in the microbiology laboratory," Kamaljit Singh of Chicago's Rush University Medical Center concluded in a 2009 scientific paper published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases. Singh estimated that 500,000 lab workers handle dangerous germs in the United States.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2012/05/03/national/a160829D91.DTL
No comments:
Post a Comment