lab worker killed by deadly infection

only 25 years old . Update, the mans name is richard olin

www.mercurynews.com...

he worked for months at the san francisco veterans affairs medical center. He felt sick on friday night with general symptoms of fever chills. Woke up saturday with a rash and had his girlfriend drive him to the hospital, he basically arrived dead.

he had been handling a bacteria linked to deadly bloodstream infections at the VA hospital's Northern California Institute for Research and Education, said Peter Melton, a spokesman for the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

name has not been released, was working with fellow researchers to develop a vaccine for a bacterial strain that causes septicemia and meningitis.

about 60 people he came in contact with were given antibiotics as a precaution.


if this is in the wrong catagory could the mods move it to the right place? thanks

Stephen King's "The Stand" comes to mind when I read this........ Hope it doesn't get out and cause a massive problem in that area!

reply to post by freespirit1


get out or let out?

big difference

sorry that was my paranoid conspiracy mind at work.

he had been handling a bacteria linked to deadly bloodstream infections at the VA hospital's Northern California Institute for Research and Education, said Peter Melton, a spokesman for the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

he worked for months at the san francisco vet

Sounds like he was a guinea pig of sorts. I mean, with MONTHS of experience, he was surely qualified to handle these deadly bacteria right

reply to post by kn0wh0w


Haha! Either/or? I was kind of thinking both when I replied

reply to post by research100
how uncanny it is that you post yours as i was typing mine, In real life"the stand" i hope it does not get closed , for it does ask just that is it the real life, "The Stand" or contagion. good catch and quicker typing

This article names the victim as Richard Din.

The man, identified by the medical examiner's office as 25-year-old Richard Din, died Saturday morning after working in a lab at the medical center, said Erika Monterroza, a spokeswoman for the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which is investigating the death.

reply to post by AnonymousCitizen
my question is, how many of the 60, come it contact with others, and is this spreading and no one saying squat about it.
A few more unknown questions, was he working alone if not how are the other workers felling? would we know if they were sick.

Originally posted by bekod
reply to post by AnonymousCitizen

 

my question is, how many of the 60, come it contact with others, and is this spreading and no one saying squat about it.
A few more unknown questions, was he working alone if not how are the other workers felling? would we know if they were sick.

It's been five days since he died, and six since he first reported symptoms. The average incubation period is four days, but can range between two and 10 days. (source) We should know in the next four days if this goes all Captain Trips or not.

"He left the lab around 5 p.m." Friday, said Harry Lampiris, chief of the VA hospital's infectious diseases division. "He had no symptoms at all."

Two hours later, however, the Treasure Island resident reported to his girlfriend he was feeling sick with a headache, fever and chills, Lampiris said.
Not until Saturday morning did the symptoms grow worse with a body rash. He asked friends to take him to the hospital but fell unconscious in the car and had no
pulse by the time he arrived. He died later in the morning.

"It starts out so nonspecifically people don't think it's anything serious," Lampiris said.

www.mercurynews.com...

A state laboratory has confirmed that the San Francisco worker was infected with the Neisseria meningitidis bacterium, the same germ he had been handling at the laboratory for weeks and months before his death. It also confirmed that the rare strain he and fellow researchers were studying -- Serogroup B -- was the same one found in his body.

The germ can cause two separate but equally deadly conditions. One is septicemia, a bloodstream inflammation that causes bleeding into the skin and organs and is believed to be the cause of the man's death.

The other is meningitis, which inflames the thin layer of tissue surrounding the brain and spinal cord and can lead to hearing loss, brain damage and death.

www.mercurynews.com...

the article says others worked with him in the lab. His friends, coworkers and 60 health care workers who treated him at the hospital were given antibiotics.

this bacteria causes septicemia and meningitis.....spread by sneezing coughing and kissing.

lets hope they nipped this in the bud.

he definitely was infected with that bacteria but they are not sure if he had the 1 condition or both.

The victim's LinkedIn page only shows two connections and not much more information. www.linkedin.com...

I think the epidemic thing scares me worse than all the other SHTF cases.

We as everyday people can prep for riots, economic collapse, ect.. but how do you prepare for a virus. Maybe one the public has never even known about. To me that is the ultimate weapon. Unseen, Unheard, and uncontrolable. Where do you run are hide.

reply to post by David134


.....certainly not by Fear, but by KNOWLEDGE and COURAGE.

1. So far only 60 had been effected.

2. Authorities had been alerted.

3. VACCINES are AVALIABLE, unlike the frightening days of SARS, when it was totally unknown and NO vaccines avaliable.

Take care, and may the virus be contained. Good luck!

reply to post by azureskys

A state laboratory has confirmed that the San Francisco worker was infected with the Neisseria meningitidis bacterium, the same germ he had been handling at the laboratory for weeks and months before his death. It also confirmed that the rare strain he and fellow researchers were studying -- Serogroup B -- was the same one found in his body.

heres my thing, if they knew what this bacteria was so deadly or even POTENTIALLY deadly, why the hell was he able to breathe it in in the first place?

Shouldnt they be working in a protected invirontment with this stuff?

And if they conditions at the facility are this lax, how easy would it to be to get this crap out of there, and use it as a weapon?

A bacteria that can kill you in a week, with symptoms that dont really trigger an "Oh Crap" response?

Sounds like a dream to someone that would use it for other purposes...........

Originally posted by SeekerofTruth101
reply to post by David134

 

.....certainly not by Fear, but by KNOWLEDGE and COURAGE.

1. So far only 60 had been effected.

2. Authorities had been alerted.

3. VACCINES are AVALIABLE, unlike the frightening days of SARS, when it was totally unknown and NO vaccines avaliable.

Take care, and may the virus be contained. Good luck!

we dont know if 60 are infected, they COULD be........and there is no ONLY term when talking in regards to something that could be spread........

Flights, Airports, Bus stops, restaurants, subways, businesses, over seas travel......

It can take far less then 60 people to do blow something out of control.....

Not only that, again......the symptoms are something as inconspicuous as a cold or the flu.........

even 1 of these people could have sneezd on a letter going out, wiped their nose and grabbed a handle at a restaurant, bar or anywhere else.........

See where im going here?

Im not trying to fear monger, my point is, it seems to me, that they should have had a much tighter reign on this bacteria they were studying , and it should have NEVER left that lab, much less been inhaled in the first place

doesn't mean anyone caught it, but they gave the antibiotics to everyone to be on the safe side. that is a good question, what level is that lab he was working in...the higher the number, the more precautions they have to take .

I will go look for info

Originally posted by research100
doesn't mean anyone caught it, but they gave the antibiotics to everyone to be on the safe side. that is a good question, what level is that lab he was working in...the higher the number, the more precautions they have to take .

I will go look for info

This is absolutely true, it doesnt mean anyone caught it........but the chances that someone could have through things that we do every day in mass groups, its pretty darn scary! lol

I would be interested to know hwo they contain their labs there

interesting snippet: Initial results of the investigation do not show any spills or equipment malfunction that could have caused the exposure, Lampiris said. The lab has since been decontaminated.

"Everyone around him said he was an outstanding worker and fastidious," he said.

none of the lab workers were vaccinated, but they are now...since their co-worker died



Read more: www.sfgate.com.../c/a/2012/05/02/BA2F1OCFMO.DTL#ixzz1tq9eMRIR

reply to post by SeekerofTruth101


This time maybe, but who knows what is out there that we dont even know about.

Aside from the natural mutations of viruses we have played god for way to long. There was a discussion yesterday about the paper being published on the mutated H5N1. At the fall of the Soviet Union they found a bio lab that had crossed antrax and small pox.and god only knows what we have done on Plumb Island and the other places that most of us dont even know about.

Think about it. We eradicated small pox but for a few samples. Why did we not destory this stuff.Why must we come up with new ways of killing each other constantly.