13 
A young researcher from San Francisco has died after being infected by a highly virulent strain of meningococcal disease he was studying—and there are fears that it could spread.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has announced that it suspects Richard Din, 25, became fatally infected with an agent from his own laboratory. A biopsy sample from Din is now being tested to confirm the news, reports the Guardian.
Ironically, Din’s research was focussed on developing a vaccine to protect against the incredibly dangerous bacterium called Neisseria meningitidis—a strain of bacteria that causes meningococcal disease, and leads to meningitis and bloodstream infections.
Now, dozens of people—including relatives, friends and co-workers—are being provided with antibiotics as a precaution. Din died less than a day after falling ill, so it should become obvious extremely quickly if the bacteria have spread. [The Guardian]
Image by Alexander Raths/Shutterstock
This is why sterilisation and health and safety should always be the highest priorities amongst scientists.
Accidents happen *shrug*
And because scientists think they’re too good for the health and safety seminars they don’t immediately go into quarantine and take antibiotics after an “accidental” exposure.
What kind of bullshit are you on about? Do you have any idea how tight the safety systems at these places are? So one thing went wrong, considering the amount of people studying this stuff worldwide it’s a miracle more people don’t off themselves.
Doesn’t seem like you’ve worked in one. I have. Safety and regulations are down to the employees, not the laboratory. If this wasn’t observed by the victim (maybe he scratched his nose whilst working in the fume hood) then he would have been infected, which he was. Not recognising the risk after “one thing went wrong” is wrong because now who knows if he’s infected others?
Practically every single fatal accident in labs occurs due to negligence, this is what you’re told before you work there every single time, regardless of whether you’re working with bacteria, viruses, or any other kind of pathogen.
Until the day humans are replaced by robots, accidents will continue to happen.
Of course, and then even robots may malfunction. The only thing we can do in the meantime is influence how we react when accidents DO happen, and that’s what the safety precautions are for. We can’t be blamed for knocking over a candle and starting a fire. We CAN be blamed for inviting our family and friends over to watch the house burn down instead of putting it out however.
Sorry for late reply, CaptainLove. I’m training with some pharmacologists, which is exactly this sort of stuff, and we went through 9 months of safety labs before anything. None of the scientists thing they’re above safety, you’re talking out of your arse. The old generation, sure. But this guy was 25. He will have had the same safety training I did. If he chose to ignore it, his fault. But he had the necessary training, and the Science community treats safety ABOVE EVERYTHING.
Calm yourself. Everyone goes through the seminars, and of course this was an accident rather than an “I’m above safety requirements” hubris. But with that said, especially the young-uns, like the 25 year old kids, just released from their masters/PhD, sometimes “forget”. It’s because these safety seminars are so drilled in that they think they’re protected, because either someone else will pick up their slack, or because existing protocols are so good, that they don’t really always have it at the forefront of their mind. That’s complacency. And complacency kills.
The science “community” may treat safety above everything else, but individuals don’t always, and those are the ones who get harmed. The amount of burns, cuts, spills, etc I have seen in my days is abhorrent. These “accidents” then (despite the countless seminars and briefings), sometimes aren’t reported because some don’t want to be viewed as incompetent buffoons in front of their supervisors and peers. Then this leads to a slippery slope of inappropriate handling of these accidents, and the whole situation gets exacerbated. Never underestimate human stupidity, despite the best efforts of the scientific community.
I agree with the sentiment – apologies for the lair. it’s just your early comments made it seem like it was a cock up from Scientists as a whole, rather than the individual.
Stay in the science business a bit longer and you’ll develop a healthy cynicism to the scientific process as a whole, which many including myself think is fundamentally flawed, but obviously this incident was a personal error. I may have let years of health-and-safety debacles slightly sully my expressions in previous comments, as you said.
In your mandatory safety training, did you get a feeling that every single person in your lab, including yourself, paid the utmost attention, and that the briefings were brought in a way that truly stressed the implications of errors, and what one should do without any consequences to themselves or their reputation, should they err? The amount of times I have seen someone with a chemical burn, and upon asking them whether they have reported it said; “it wasn’t necessary, I took care of it myself, it was just a burn”, is staggering.
Actually, I do completely get where you’re coming from with that. The lecturers seemed to be very careful, but I saw many dangerous chemicals being thrown about. I know I broke a few regulations myself, unfortunately. I guess what I disagree with you on, is that such human error is inevitable.
The lecturers tried to make us do otherwise, but it just bored us to the point in which safety is now tedious.
We’re definitely better off than in the days when Benzene was used to develop films though!
I think CFCs and asbestos would also like a word. I guess human error as you say could be avoidable, and in most places it actually is. But it’s the few that slip through the cracks like this one that make us all look bad.
A reform, a “buddy-system” so to speak could be implemented, hence increasing accountability and reducing errors. Trials of health and safety reforms don’t go too well most days unfortunately. I guess time will tell until the next major science screwup where we realise that wifi gives all our children carcinogenic mutations which manifest in mid-life.
Imagine the panic.
My sixth form building had asbestos back when I was doing my A-levels – when it was knocked down they evacuated the school!
The unfortunate thing is, we all know how possible such a cock up is.
The good news is that the strain is so virulent, carriers won’t have time to run around spreading it to others.
The big question is….
… did he bite anyone?