Bacterium infected 3 at BU biolab

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http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/01/19/bacterium_infected_3_at_bu_biolab/Bacterium infected 3 at BU biolabBy Stephen Smith, Globe Staff | January 19, 2005Three Boston University researchers became ill last year after being exposedin a laboratory to a potentially lethal bacterium called tularemia,university and public health authorities said yesterday.It was the first known instance of researchers in a Boston lab becominginfected with a biological agent they were studying, according to a citypublic health official. And it came at an awkward time for BU -- when it wasseeking local and federal approval for a high-security lab to study the mostfeared infectious diseases in the world.How the workers became infected remains unclear, although BU officials saidthat researchers had violated procedures intended to protect them fromexposure. Two researchers became ill in May and a third in September,apparently after separate exposures. But their illnesses were not linked totularemia until October.BU reported the cases to city, state, and federal health authorities inNovember -- about the time public hearings on the high-security lab werebeing held. But neither the university nor the government agencies disclosedthe cases to the public at the time, saying there was no risk to publichealth because tularemia is not transmitted from person to person.Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who learned of the cases from BU and citypublic health officials, also decided against telling city residents."Right from the moment that he was made aware of the situation, the PublicHealth Commission assured him there was no public threat whatsoever, andhe's made it clear that if there was any public threat whatsoever, thepublic would have been advised immediately," said Seth Gitell, the mayor'sspokesman.With Menino's enthusiastic backing, the city Zoning Commission gave itsfinal approval to the high-security biolaboratory last week.The lab still must be approved by the National Institute of Allergy andInfectious Diseases -- which is considered likely because it's the sameagency that in 2003 selected BU as one of two sites nationally forsophisticated new labs able to study anthrax, plague, and other deadlypathogens.BU and public health officials discussed the cases publicly for the firsttime yesterday after media inquiries.The president of the Conservation Law Foundation, which has opposed buildingthe high-security lab in an urban neighborhood as dense as the South End,said last night that the accident highlights the risk of studying dangerousbiological and chemical agents."The assurances that BU has given that it can maintain perfect control ofthese facilities are called into question," said Philip Warburg, leader ofthe environmental group. "We're also disturbed that this incident is onlycoming to light today."Gitell said that because the Zoning Commission was concerned solely withland development issues, it was not necessary to inform commission membersabout the exposures of the BU researchers.Page 2 of 3 -- Gitell said there were also concerns that publicizing theincident could jeopardize ongoing investigations into the exposures by thecity Public Health Commission and the US Centers for Disease Control andPrevention.Dr. Thomas J. Moore, acting provost of BU's medical campus, said theuniversity did not believe that the cases of tularemia exposure wererelevant to the ongoing debate over the development of the high-securityfacility, known as a Biosafety Level 4 lab. The researchers who became illwere working in a Biosafety Level 2 lab, which has far less stringent safetystandards and is allowed to work only with less dangerous material."The security levels in a BSL-4 laboratory are so far beyond what you wouldsee in a BSL-2 laboratory that this would never happen there," Moore said."This has for sure heightened our awareness and attentiveness to safetyissues in labs that operate at a lower level of security."The first exposures happened last spring, with two researchers falling illin late May. They complained of flu-like symptoms and one was hospitalizedovernight. The third infected researcher fell ill in September and requiredhospitalization for several days, Moore said. All three recovered fullyafter receiving antibiotics.University officials declined to identify the researchers or describe ingreater detail their job duties, citing privacy concerns.They worked in a lab that in 2003 received a five-year grant from thefederal government to develop a vaccine against tularemia, an illness spreadby insects and animals, including rabbits. Often called "rabbit fever," itis also viewed as a potential agent of bioterrorism. In 2000, an outbreak oftularemia on Martha's Vineyard ignited panic after a laborer died and abouta dozen other people became infected.The scientists at BU believed that they were working with a strain of thegerm that had been altered specifically for vaccine research so as not tocause illness. But a highly infectious strain of tularemia was mixed withthe harmless variety. The source of the contamination is being investigatedby federal health officials.The tularemia linked with the illnesses was supplied by a laboratory inNebraska that federal authorities, citing security concerns, declinedyesterday to identify.Because the researchers assumed that they were working with a form oftularemia not known to cause illness, they did not immediately link theirsymptoms to their research.It was after the third researcher became ill that faculty members began tosuspect that something could be seriously wrong in the laboratory inside theuniversity's Evans Biomedical Research building on Albany Street in theSouth End.Subsequent DNA tests on the tularemia being studied in the BU lab showedthat the bacteria identified as coming from Nebraska contained the harmlessstrain and a highly infectious type.Page 3 of 3 -- "The deck was stacked against [the researchers] because theywere working with something they had no idea they were working with," Mooresaid.But Moore acknowledged that researchers in the lab had violated policiesrequiring them to work with tularemia inside an enclosed box, called a hood,that sends air through sophisticated filters.Instead, the tularemia samples were sometimes worked with in the open, inpart because the enclosed research boxes were sometimes filled with materialthat should not have been kept there, Moore said.Blood tests were performed on about 60 university researchers, and thosetests showed that only the three workers who had become ill tested positivefor tularemia. After the exposure was determined, BU in November shutteredthe lab for decontamination. The part of the lab where the tularemiaresearch was conducted remains closed.Eleven researchers were placed on paid leave in November, to ensure theintegrity of the investigation, and six remain off the job.The investigation into how the exposure happened continues. Samples oftularemia were sent directly from the Nebraska lab for CDC analysis, andthose tests showed no presence of the dangerous strain, deepening themystery around the episode."At this time it seems to me there's no evidence conclusively to link thecontamination to Boston or to Nebraska," said Jennifer Morcone, a CDCspokeswoman. "Certainly, everyone would like to determine the source of thecontamination to make ceratin nothing like this could happen again."Infectious disease specialists at other universities said that BU appearedto have acted properly by notifying health agencies. They also said that BUwas not obligated to alert the public to the exposure of researchers."I don't know what the point would be of telling the public because therewas no danger to the public," said Karl Klose, a professor of microbiologyat the University of Texas at San Antonio.As a result of the exposures, BU as well as the Boston Public HealthCommission are moving to tighten oversight of research. To improve safety inthe dozens of public and private research labs in Boston, the Public HealthCommission intends by this spring to start a mandatory training program forlab workers, emphasizing the reporting of illnesses in researchers. Thecommission also plans to hire a lab safety inspector who will makeunannounced visits to research sites to make certain they are followingsafety protocols, said John Auerbach, Public Health Commission executivedirector.