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Washington Post – by Lena H. Sun
As many as a dozen scientists may have been exposed to the Ebola virus at a lab of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, agency officials said Wednesday.
The potential exposure took place Monday when scientists conducting research on the virus at a high-security lab mistakenly put a sample containing the potentially infectious virus in a place where it was transferred for processing to another CDC lab, also in Atlanta on the CDC campus.
A lab technician who processed the material in the second lab and perhaps a dozen others who entered the lab may have been exposed, officials said. The technician has no symptoms of illness and is being monitored for 21 days. Agency spokeswoman Barbara Reynolds said others who entered the lab have been contacted and will be assessed for possible exposure by CDC clinicians. She said the number of exposures could be much less than a dozen.
Agency officials said there was no possible exposure outside the secure laboratory at CDC and no exposure or risk to the public. The mistake took place Monday afternoon and was discovered by laboratory scientists Tuesday and reported to leadership within an hour of the discovery.
The event is under internal investigation by the CDC, and it was reported to Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Burwell and to the program that has oversight over “select agents” such as Ebola and anthrax.
The accident comes after a series of incidents earlier this summer involving the mishandling of dangerous pathogens at the nation’s labs, including one in June at a CDC lab that potentially exposed dozens of employees to live anthrax because employees failed to properly inactivate the anthrax when transferring samples.
“I am troubled by this incident in our Ebola research laboratory in Atlanta,” said CDC Director Tom Frieden in a statement. “We are monitoring the health of one technician who could possibly have been exposed and I have directed that there be a full review of every aspect of the incident and that CDC take all necessary measures. Thousands of laboratory scientists in more than 150 labs throughout CDC have taken extraordinary steps in recent months to improve safety. No risk to staff is acceptable, and our efforts to improve lab safety are essential — the safety of our employees is our highest priority.”
The lab where Monday’s potential exposure occurred was decontaminated and the material destroyed as a routine procedure before the error was identified. The laboratory was decontaminated for a second time and is now closed, and transfers from the high-security lab have stopped while the review is taking place.
The high-security lab where the mistakes were made also performs diagnostic tests for Ebola, and has conducted hundreds of those tests since July. Stuart Nichol, a top CDC official, said diagnostic testing for Ebola will be moved to a different lab.
“CDC reports potential Ebola exposure in Atlanta lab”
CDC lies.