- Hi Jeff - Here we are again, not one, but TWO instances
when the deadly Foot and Mouth Disease spread in the biocontainment area
of Plum Island lab this summer.
-
- This is the same Homeland Security Agency that is asking
us to upgrade the Plum Island lab to a BSL 4.
-
- Some things never change...and Plum Island is one of
them.
-
- Patricia Doyle
-
-
- Lab Tightens Biosafety
- By Bill Bleyer
NewsDay Staff Writer
8-18-4
-
- The Department of Homeland Security says it has tightened
biosafety procedures at the Plum Island Animal Disease Center after two
instances this summer when foot-and- mouth disease accidentally spread
within the biocontainment area of the laboratory.
-
- As a result, personnel have been ordered to take
additional
decontamination showers and improve sterilization of equipment before it
is moved, the agency said.
-
- Donald Tighe, spokesman for the Department of Homeland
Security, operator of the laboratory off Orient Point which studies foreign
animal viruses, said an ongoing investigation has confirmed "that
nothing was ever out of biocontainment. This posed no risk to humans inside
or outside the facility."
-
- The lab has airtight doors and special air filters
designed
to keep viruses from moving from one room to another and from escaping
from the biocontainment area where scientists work.
-
- Public officials on the North Fork and in Washington
have pushed for additional precautions. In an Aug. 2 letter to lab director
Beth Lautner, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Tim Bishop
(D- Southampton) called the incidents "perhaps the most serious breach
to date" in the island's security procedures in recent years.
-
- Tighe said "we learned in early July of an infection
that happened on June 24 of two cattle that were involved in a vaccine
trial. We subsequently found that the infection stemmed from a strain other
than the one being used in that vaccine safety trial."
-
- Tighe added that on July 19 four swine in an
animal-holding
room that were not involved in a vaccine experiment were found to be
infected.
-
- After the incidents, there were meetings with staff to
review biosafety measures and all lab rooms were disinfected, Tighe
said.
-
- The lab staff already were required to take
decontamination
showers when leaving the biocontainment area and an additional shower if
they were leaving a lab room where infected animals were present. Now,
Tighe said, the additional shower will be required for everyone entering
"any animal room, whether or not they were involved in research that
would have included infected animals."
-
- Tighe said Homeland Security officials immediately
contacted
members of the agency's Plum Island community advisory committee on the
North Fork as well as Clinton and Bishop to alert them.
-
- The recent incidents recalled a more serious one in 1978
when foot-and-mouth disease -- an infectious disease affecting
cloven-hoofed
animals that can be spread by contact -- was discovered in animals penned
outside the lab awaiting testing. The animals were destroyed and outdoor
storage of animals was eliminated.
-
- http://www.nynewsday.com/news/health
- /ny-liplum0817,0,1570495.story?coll=ny-h
-
- Patricia A. Doyle, PhD
- Please visit my "Emerging Diseases" message
board at:
- http://www.clickitnews.com/ubbthreads/
- postlist.php?Cat=&Board=emergingdiseases
- Zhan le Devlesa tai sastimasa
- Go with God and in Good Health
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