lab worker killed by deadly infection

Originally posted by research100
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

So no spills or malfunctions........i wonder if that means they are working with it in an open air environment since they say he inhaled it?

Good lord, why arent they vaccinated against the stuff they are working with?

This is some scary policies from a lab with potential deadly stuff running around........

reply to post by research100


Here are some interesting tidbits I was able to dig up:

The lab where the victim Richard Din worked was NCIRE
They have about a 100 researchers, including 3 that specialize in Infectious Diseases
One of the three, John McLeod Griffiss, MD, studies bacterial meningitis
Back in 2002 Dr. Griffiss sued the Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs for violation of the Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989, but the claim was dismissed, and the appeal confirmed that

Maybe some hard feelings there?

reply to post by ManBehindTheMask


Can you point out where you found a statement claiming the lab worker "inhaled" the deadly infection ?

I've gone back over all post's and news articles but don't seem to find any reference to him inhaling it.
Maybe I just missed it some where.

reply to post by azureskys


My apologies it was an assumption I made due to a past case

Sixteen laboratory workers worldwide contracted meningitis between 1985 and 2001, including six in the United States, according to a 2005 study by the Journal of Clinical Microbiology. Half died. Most did not have sufficient respiratory protection, the study said.

Naturally I assumed that due to the nature of what he was working on , it was more then likely inhaled....

the article in the first post, about half way down, here is the passage

His friends and co-workers are getting preventive antibiotics, as are some 60 health workers who treated him at the hospital, Shields said.
The bacteria spreads through respiratory exposure such as sneezing and coughing or kissing.

reply to post by research100


Thank you I did see that- but to me it was was not the only means of transfer. and was not definitive.
In my mind it would be possible to get infected through a nick or cut being exposed somehow.
Also through some form of contact with the eye's.

Apparently, several of these workers have died due to the performance of duty.

Sounds like a dangerous job. If they were cops or firemen, they would be hailed as heroes, too bad the rest of us who work in dangerous fields don't get the same respect.

There were some posts that question on the need to be even 'playing' with such dangerous virus, no matter how 'perfect' flawed mortals can devise the best containment chambers.

I believe that it goes into a deeper level of discussion - science ethics. Is it ethical to conduct those line of researches?

I would like to say no, but it would only be an irrational frog in the well belief.

Intelligence gifted to humans is worldwide, and the world currently now isn't exactly a friendly neighbourhood, with rogue and tyranical states around us. What the free world would not touch, rogue and tyrannical states would rush in, for the sake of superiority or wealth or prestige in the guise of finding cures for diseases which may mutate over time.

Supplies of twisted intelligence in the scientific community is never short, nor those greedy and ambitious are short either. Sooner or later, its only a matter of time that biological weapons will scourge our Planet. Thus the free world must not stupidly believe everyone else is being ethical ,and be pragmatically prepared instead

Science will progress and have to progress anyway. It cannot remain stagnant, for we are not masters of the Universe. Or planet is but one amongst many, orbiting an unknown Universe, into unknown and uncharted terroritories. We mankind need to understand the environments our planet sails through and its impact upon us biological.

Today's advancement is bordering on the beginnings of being able to create even new biological entities by constructing DNA matter. It is also a matter of time before we make leaps and bounds in the quest for the knowledge of Science.

Science by itself, like a hammer tool, or a gun, does not kill. It is only the human wielding it that kills. It calls for RESPONSIBILITY in the advancement of science, not morality to stop the progress of science.

For every biological, cybernatic or mechanical organism we mankind create, we MUST ensure there are antidotes, vaccines and DNA or mechanical kill switches that can stop them in its tracks before it can harm humans or mutates.

azureyes, I get what you mean, this bacteria can cause 2 different diseases, one, inhaled from sneezing coughing kissing, the other sepsis I would think you could get if you have a cut and the bacteria got on in it, would lead to an infection that would spread to the bloodstream (sepsis)

reply to post by SeekerofTruth101


Science is the new politics.
No ethics reside within that arena.

The reason Richard Din wasn't given a Vaccine. . . Is because there is NO vaccine for that particular Neisseria meningitidis bacterium.

Din wasn't vaccinated for the illness despite Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations to do so. Nonetheless, the VA's Harry Lampiris said a vaccine might not have protected Din because he was helping to develop a vaccine for a strain that was resistant to vaccine.

Mercury News

The vaccine-resistant strain of bacteria was found in his bloodstream.

Mercury News

So you have 2 days before you're hemorraging and dead. . . Starts out as flu-like symptoms. . .

Funny how the News neglects/removes how this bacterium strain is vaccine-resistant.

I also read, that Richard Din was given antibiotics but didn't help either. I believe at a certain point during the infection, it's to late for antibiotics to fully work. Seems like you have roughly 2 days before its classified as 'untreatable', as of now.

Originally posted by JWash
Funny how the News neglects/removes how this bacterium strain is vaccine-resistant.

But yet, 60 or so of his closest friends have been vaccinated against a vaccine-resistant strain given antibiotics? I guess it might make them feel better about their potential exposure be better than nothing.

his few coworkers were encouraged to get vaccinated against what they work with......but this bacteria is resistant , no vaccine yet., the 60 various staff who treated him at the hospital and his friends were given antibiotics as a precaution.


this is what he was handling : strain of Neisseria meningitidis.

those people^ were given an antibiotic that is 100% effective (so they say), I guesss if you given it early enough

we are still left with "how did he get it" do you think something could be revealed in the autopsy on how he contracted this....or will this story fade away...