Ebola breakdown at the US disease control authority

Renewed safety margin at the CDC - Employees may be infected with Ebola

25/12/2014

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is currently heavily criticized for having a severe safety record when dealing with the Ebola virus. Like the US news agency „The Associated Press“ (AP) reported that at least one laboratory employee had erroneously contacted samples containing live Ebola virus. In the worst case, the CDC staff member may have been infected with the deadly virus.

The mishap occurred on Monday when a sample of Ebola virus was to be sent from a high-security CDC laboratory to another lab on the same floor. A false sample, possibly containing live Ebola viruses, was launched. However, the second lab did not have the equipment to safely handle live viruses, she says „AP“. Although the employee had worn gloves and a protective suit, but no face protection, the message of the US daily newspaper „The Seattle Times“. Accordingly, the laboratory technician may have become infected with the virus. Other employees may have come in contact with the viruses. The incident joins a series of safety spans at the CDC over the past few months. Here additional adjustments to the internal security measures at the US disease control authority seem urgently needed.

Employees are being watched for 21 days
The confusion of the samples was discovered according to the announcement of the „AP“ on Tuesday. In the interview, Dr. Stuart Nichol, head of the CDC „Viral Special Pathogens Branch“, the glitch is due to human error. CDC spokeswoman Barbara Reynolds emphasized that the laboratory had been decontaminated twice after the incident and that potential exposure of employees had been reported to National Health Minister Sylvia Burwell. The laboratory technician concerned was monitored for 21 days (incubation period of the virus) for the typical symptoms of Ebola, and other employees (less than a dozen) who worked in the laboratory were checked for possible exposure. According to CDC spokesman Thomas Skinner, no other people seem to be affected yet. There is no risk to the public as the wrong samples have not left the CDC grounds.

Increased safety margins at the CDC
The current safety margin is according to the „Seattle Times“ particularly worrying, because CDC has made similar mishaps in dealing with dangerous samples of anthrax and influenza in recent months. For example, in June CDC scientists accidentally shipped anthrax samples containing live anthrax virus instead of killed viruses to laboratories that were not equipped to handle the dangerous pathogens. Dozens of employees had to be treated with antibiotics as a precaution. In another breakdown, a CDC lab accidentally contaminated a relatively harmless sample of influenza virus with the dangerous H5N1 flu virus and then sent the sample to the Department of Agriculture. There, the mistake was luckily discovered upon receiving the sample and therefore no one was infected.

Improvements in security arrangements are coming
The CDC Director Thomas Frieden was summoned to the congress following the flu and anthrax tests and was forced to make serious mistakes of the CDC. Also, Dr. Peace confirms that the mistakes should be judged not as isolated failures but as a result of the overall uncertain practices. The CDC director stated that all those responsible were aware of the need for action and announced that they would significantly improve security procedures. For this purpose, a group of external consultants was called in as well. „I work on it until the problem is solved“, stressed Thomas peace in July. Apparently little has happened since then, and so trust in the CDC, which has long been considered one of the world's most prestigious scientific research centers, is increasingly lost.

Security experts shocked
Rutgers University's molecular biologist and expert on biological weapons, Richard Ebright, was outraged by the Ebola virus in the current safety margin and told the press: „They do not seem capable of learning.“ The incident was inexcusable. In his opinion, all laboratories that produce samples of killed viruses should test them before shipment to ensure the pathogens are dead. In addition, laboratories receiving the samples would need to test them at the entrance. Otherwise, there is still the risk that supposedly inactivated samples in security arrangements „similar to those in a dental office“ be edited, so Ebright. Najemddin Meshkati, professor of industrial and systems engineering at the University of Southern California and human error safety expert, also said he was „speechless“. This is another indication that the CDC urgently needs to improve its safety culture.

The current breakdown in the treatment of the Ebola virus is also particularly critical, because all infections that occurred in the wake of the current Ebola epidemic on American soil, laboratory staff or medical employees concerned. This can certainly be seen as an indication of the weaknesses in the security arrangements. For the benefit of the employees, but also of the general protection against infection, improvements seem necessary. (Fp)