Meningitis claims San Francisco VA lab worker

[Ronan Kelly]

Meningitis claims San Francisco VA lab worker

By Matt O'Brien
Bay Area News Group
Posted: 05/02/2012 11:54:38 AM PDT

State and federal health officials are investigating the death of a 25-year-old laboratory researcher at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center who died after he was infected with a germ that can cause meningitis.
The California Occupational Safety and Health Administration confirmed Wednesday that it is launching an investigation into the lab worker's death.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also is helping to find out what occurred, a spokeswoman said.
...

http://www.insidebayarea.com/news/ci_20531413/meningitis-claims-san-francisco-va-lab-worker

[Ronan Kelly]

Re: Meningitis claims San Francisco VA lab worker

Deadly infection claims San Francisco VA lab worker

By Matt O'Brien
Bay Area News Group

Posted: 05/02/2012 11:53:53 AM PDT

State and federal health officials are investigating how a rare and virulent bacteria strain appears to have killed a young researcher at a VA Hospital's infectious diseases lab in San Francisco, setting off alarms that the man's friends and fellow researchers also may have been exposed.

The 25-year-old laboratory researcher at San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center died Saturday morning shortly after asking friends to take him to the hospital. For the week and months before his death, he had been handling a bacteria linked to deadly bloodstream infections at the VA Hospital's Northern California Institute for Research and Education, said Peter Melton, a spokesman for the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
...
A state laboratory has confirmed that the San Francisco worker was infected with the Neisseria meningitidis bacterium, the same germ he had been handling at the laboratory for weeks and months before his death. It also confirmed that the rare strain he and fellow researchers were studying -- Serogroup B -- was the same one found in his body.
...

http://www.marinij.com/ci_20531408/meningitis-claims-san-francisco-va-lab-worker?source=most_emailed

[Ronan Kelly]

Re: Meningitis claims San Francisco VA lab worker

VA researcher in bacterium death is identified

Victoria Colliver

Thursday, May 3, 2012
...
Cal/OSHA investigators will interview Din's co-workers, retrace his steps and learn more about how the material was stored and handled, Melton said. The agency has up to six months to complete its investigation.


An official from the VA hospital said Din's co-workers described him as "fastidious" and no initial evidence of spills or equipment failure was noted. Din's co-workers and close contacts have been treated with preventive antibiotics.

A "town hall" meeting was held Monday at the VA medical center to inform employees about what happened and to offer grief-counseling services, said Dr. Harry Lampiris, chief of infectious disease at the hospital. Lampiris said Din's parents, who are not from this area, attended the meeting.

Victoria Colliver is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. vcolliver@sfchronicle.com

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...#ixzz1tqFHbTkB

[Ronan Kelly]

Re: Meningitis claims San Francisco VA lab worker

Facility where researcher died closes as probes launched
By: Bay City News | 05/03/12 9:23 PM

A laboratory at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center has been shut down after the weekend death of a researcher, which was apparently caused by deadly bacteria he was working with, a VA official said Thursday.

...

Read more at the San Francisco Examiner: http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/2012...#ixzz1ttcRpink

[Emily]

Re: Meningitis claims San Francisco VA lab worker

http://www.medicaldaily.com/news/201...fornia-cdc.htm

US Officials Investigate Mysterious Death of 25-Year-Old Scientist, Hours after Handling Rare Bacteria
Health officials are investigating how 25-year-old researcher died Saturday, hours after handling an infectious meningitis bacteria in a California laboratory.
By Christine Hsu | May 03, 2012
[snip]
Colleagues of the dead researcher, who majored in biology and joined the laboratory in October 2011, felt like he was ?highly competent? and was ?adequately supervised? when handling the rare and infectious Neisseria meningitidis bacterium, a germ that he had been studying at the laboratory for weeks and months before his death...

[sharon sanders]

Re: Meningitis claims San Francisco VA lab worker

machine translation

snip

May 07, 2012 11:00 AM

"Ding Richard April 27, Friday afternoon from work to leave the laboratory, two hours after the first was headache, chills and body, the second day of the disease is more serious, the body spotted. When the roommate he drove back to the Veterans Hospital, D Richard has been unconscious in the car, died at 14:00 on Saturday, April 28, before and after 17 hours."

Read more: World News Network - North America Chinese News, Chinese entrepreneurs - D Richard sudden death in the case of Li Mengxian concern