This is an amazing leak (in both senses of the word) re "recombinant" Lyme being studied at maximum containment biowarfare lab.
I strongly recommend that people print this one out in hard copy as it is liable to "disappear" off the internet. Some years ago, some colleagues and I uncovered and publicised similar info re Lyme being studied in maximum containment (BSL3 and BSL4) labs. These levels of security are reserved for the world's msot dangerous pathogens, studied for biowarfare purposes. The links disappeared from the Web shortly after or, as in the case of fort Detrick, they simply removed the words "Lyme disease" from the page, claiming it had been a "printing error".
I have pasted here the most relevant bit but you can read the whole sorry report of catastrophic failures of biosecurity (in a week where CDC has admitted to dozens of dangerous breaches with live anthrax sent all over the world) here: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/05/28/some-recent-us-lab-incidents/25258237/
Congratulations to the journalists whose perseverance forced yet another revelation of this info re Lyme , that "hard-to-catch, easily-cured" disease being studied in max containment labs.
Please add your comment if possible to the USA Today website (you have to log in via facebook) and further circulate this extremely important news. thank you.
Elena
"10 incidents discovered at the nation's biolabs
Alison Young and Nick Penzenstadler, USA TODAY 8:45 a.m. EDT May 29, 2015
A USA TODAY Network investigation identifies more than 200 biosafety level 3 and 4 lab facilities that work with dangerous pathogens -- and reveals safety records that some of them fought to keep secret. (USA NEWS, USA TODAY)
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Records obtained by the USA TODAY Network show hundreds of incidents have occurred in labs across the country in recent years. Here are a few examples of how things can go wrong...
[snip]
UNC has string of lost mice...
Scientist botches experiments twice in two weeks
A scientist at Texas A&M in College Station-Byron stuck himself with a needle while injecting a mouse that was previously infected with a recombinant strain of Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacteria that causes Lyme disease, in February 2014.
A scientist at Texas A&M in College Station-Byron stuck
A scientist at Texas A&M in College Station-Byron stuck himself with a needle while injecting a mouse that was previously infected with a recombinant strain of Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacteria that causes Lyme disease, in February 2014. (Photo: Hemera Technologies, Getty Images)
The risk was low, but the researcher was referred to a physician and started post-exposure prophylaxis and a Tdap vaccination.
The same researcher was bitten through a glove by a mouse infected with B. burgdorferi just a week later. He had to go back for another health evaluation while still completing the round of antibiotics from the first incident.
Both incidents were reported to the National Institutes of Health.
Lane Stephenson, the university's director of news and information services, declined to answer questions about
the lab incidents.
"Regarding other aspects of your inquiry, we think the information provided in response to your earlier FOI request is sufficient," Stephenson said in an email.
— Nick Penzenstadler and Alison Young
Dozens of holes in BSL-4 'spacesuits'
As a key protection against the world's most deadly pathogens, including the Ebola virus, scientists in the BSL-4 labs at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) at Fort Detrick in Maryland wear pressurized, full-body spacesuit-like gear and breathe purified air. Yet those suits ruptured or developed holes in at least 37 incidents during a 20-month period in 2013 and 2014, according to lab incident reports obtained by USA TODAY under the federal Freedom of Information Act...[snip]".
Post Edited (elenacook) : 5/30/2015 1:39:05 PM (GMT-6)