May 4, 2012 – (CBS/AP) SAN FRANCISCO - A researcher at an infectious diseases laboratory in San Francisco has died of a rare bacteria strain, California health officials said, raising fears the man’s friends and fellow researchers may too have been infected. The 25-year-old man who worked at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center, who has not been named, died over the weekend shortly after asking friends to take him to a hospital, the San Jose Mercury News reported Wednesday. –CBS

Originally posted by antonia
reply to post by CAELENIUM

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Hm, that's an awful link if you aren't on mobile phone so it was hard to read, but I'll comment.

I don't it's going to be the end of the world as it appears to only kill about 10% of it's victims.
en.wikipedia.org...
You come in contact with meningitis all the time, contact does not mean you will be infected.

edit on 4-5-2012 by antonia because: opps

Originally posted by CAELENIUM
Personally I think that we need to be careful. This particular bacterium might not be the one that wipes us off the face of the earth, but one of these days a biological weapon is certainly going to fall into the hands of terrorists ! It is only a matter of time !

YouTube Link

Seasonal flu has a death rate of less than 0.1 percent -- but still manages to kill 250,000 to 500,000 people globally every year. A category 5 pandemic would compare to the 1918 flu pandemic, which had an estimated death rate of 2 percent or more, and would kill tens of million of people

Let's hope this isn't easily transmissible by contact, but I note they haven't made any assertions about the vector of transmission.

"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. "Obviously, he didn't suspect it." The San Francisco Department of Public Health is trying to identify everyone who had close contact with the worker during the time he was infected, said city health spokeswoman Eileen Shields

Symptoms started Friday evening and he was dead Saturday.....holy crap!!

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.