Death by Lab-Acquired Infection?

A researcher dead from a meningococcal infection may have acquired it in his laboratory.

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Gram-stained Neisseria meningitidis group B.CDC/DR. BRODSKY

A young researcher who succumbed last month (April 28) to meningitis may have been infected at work, reported ScienceInsider. Richard Din, 25 years old, worked at the Veteran Affairs (VA) Medical Center in San Francisco, California, as a research associate, studying the serotype B strain of the Neisseria meningitidis bacterium. Though vaccines exist for other strains, there is no vaccine for serotype B, and Din’s lab, run by Carl Grunfeld, aims to develop one.

Blood tests showed that Din was infected with the serotype B strain of N. meningitidis, but a definitive diagnosis of a lab-acquired infection waits until the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identifies the specific strain. "It's presumed to be a lab exposure, but it's not 100 percent," Harry Lampiris, chief ...

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