A laboratory technician at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was being monitored on Wednesday for possible accidental exposure to the Ebola virus during an experiment, officials said.
The person, working in a secure laboratory in Atlanta, might have come into contact with a small amount of live virus, CDC spokeswoman Barbara Reynolds said in an e-mailed statement.
The experimental material was on a sealed plate, but was not supposed to be moved into the lab in which the technician was working, Reynolds said. The worker is to be monitored for 21 days and the person’s name has not been released.
News of the technician’s possible exposure to Ebola comes days after CDC Director Tom Frieden returned from West Africa, where Ebola has killed thousands. Frieden said on Monday that the response to the outbreak has improved significantly in recent months, but the virus continues to spread in Monrovia, Liberia and Guinea.
Other employees have been notified, but none has required monitoring, Reynolds said. More staff are to be assessed for exposure.
There is no risk to the public and lab scientists notified CDC officials of what happened on Tuesday, Reynolds said. The lab has been decontaminated twice, and the material in question was destroyed before CDC officials became aware of the mistake.
The possible exposure is under internal investigation and has been reported to US Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Burwell, Reynolds said.
Transfers from the lab the material came from have been stopped during the internal review and the lab the exposure might have happened in is closed, Reynolds said.
The technician’s potential exposure is at least the second to prompt a precautionary response from the agency in six months.
In June, at least 52 workers at the CDC took antibiotics as a precaution because a lab safety problem was thought to have exposed them to anthrax.
Health officials have said Ebola spreads through direct contact with the bodily fluids of someone infected with the virus — putting healthcare workers and those in close quarters with infected people at higher risk of contracting the virus. Four healthcare and aid workers who contracted the virus have been treated and released from Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.
In a statement, Frieden said he is troubled by the technician’s potential exposure and the CDC has worked to improve safety protocols as it helps respond to the outbreak in Africa.
“I have directed that there be a full review of every aspect of the incident and that CDC take all necessary measures,” he said.
The CDC plans to publish a report on what happened, Reynolds said. It is also planning to report the potential exposure to an external advisory committee that offers advice on best practices in lab science and safety, he added.
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
Two Belgian teenagers on Tuesday were charged with wildlife piracy after they were found with thousands of ants packed in test tubes in what Kenyan authorities said was part of a trend in trafficking smaller and lesser-known species. Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx, two 19-year-olds who were arrested on April 5 with 5,000 ants at a guest house, appeared distraught during their appearance before a magistrate in Nairobi and were comforted in the courtroom by relatives. They told the magistrate that they were collecting the ants for fun and did not know that it was illegal. In a separate criminal case, Kenyan Dennis
Incumbent Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa on Sunday claimed a runaway victory in the nation’s presidential election, after voters endorsed the young leader’s “iron fist” approach to rampant cartel violence. With more than 90 percent of the votes counted, the National Election Council said Noboa had an unassailable 12-point lead over his leftist rival Luisa Gonzalez. Official results showed Noboa with 56 percent of the vote, against Gonzalez’s 44 percent — a far bigger winning margin than expected after a virtual tie in the first round. Speaking to jubilant supporters in his hometown of Olon, the 37-year-old president claimed a “historic victory.” “A huge hug
A judge in Bangladesh issued an arrest warrant for the British member of parliament and former British economic secretary to the treasury Tulip Siddiq, who is a niece of former Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who was ousted in August last year in a mass uprising that ended her 15-year rule. The Bangladeshi Anti-Corruption Commission has been investigating allegations against Siddiq that she and her family members, including Hasina, illegally received land in a state-owned township project near Dhaka, the capital. Senior Special Judge of Dhaka Metropolitan Zakir Hossain passed the order on Sunday, after considering charges in three separate cases filed
RSS