Every workplace has work related accidents, but when your workplace is the Center for Disease Control (CDC) “workplace accident” takes on a whole new level of terrifying. Last Friday, amusingly enough June 13th, some scientists at the CDC transfered what they thought was inactive or dead Anthrax bacteria to their Biotechnology Core Facility and their Special Bacteriology Reference Laboratory resulting in a probable exposure of up to 75 CDC employees to live Anthrax. These two facilaties are only outfitted to handle dead Anthrax due to their level of biosafety, or BSL rating. The lab that the pathogen was being sent from was their Biosafety Lab (BSL)  4 facility which is home to the most dangerous and exotic pathogens. For the uninitiated let me explain the differences between ratings. They rank from level 4 to level 1 and are classified by their features and the types of pathogens that are worked on in them.

BSL 4-Located in a seperate facility and requires extra counter measures and safety appraratus as well as safety precautions that are followed in the handling of all bacterial pathogens which can be weaponized via aerosolization. Examples of pathogens dealt with in this lab environment: Ebola virus, Anthrax, Dengue Fever.

BSL 3-Lab can be co-located with other laboratory facilities (think within Universities) and deals primarily with pathogens that can be inhaled and may cause potentially lethal disease if safety procautions are not followed. Work is performed in safety cabinets and other containment devices and is supervised by specially trained scientists. Examples of pathogens dealt with in this lab environment-Francicella and Tuberculosis.

BSL 2 Lab-Any infectious aerosols are dealt with in containment cabinets and other protocols are followed to limit exposure to used sharps. Access to facility is limited when experiments are being conducted. Examples of pathogens dealt with in this environment-Chlamydia, Listeria, Salmonella.

BSL 1 Lab-Suitable for work on well characterized agents not known to cause disease in adult humans. Observes standard microbiological practices.

The Bioterror Rapid Response Unit at the CDC is a BSL 4 facility and they were transfering the “dead” Anthrax bacteria to the two lower security labs at the facility. “I know you are sitting back and asking “How the heck could this happen??”, well dear reader it was shockingly simple actually. You see the Bioterror Rapid Response lab had been instituting a new process for the preparation of these samples using chemicals instead of radiation. As a secondary check they plated samples on agar and placed them in an incubator for 24 hours to see if they would grow. When no growth was seen, it was assumed that the chemicals had done their job and the samples were successfully neutralized.

One week later when CDC employees were cleaning out the incubator they noticed that there was growth on the agar which confirms that the bateria were not successfully neutralized and that the employees were in fact exposed to live Anthrax. The good news is that none of the exposed employees, or their family members, have exhibited symptoms of illness and they have all been placed on the approrpiate antibiotic regimen. The bad news is that this is yet one more serious symptom that there is something rotten in Washington D.C. and the current group of “leaders” haven’t got a clue.

Update:

According to a Reuters report the number of possible employees exposed to Anthrax in the mistake discovered on June 13th is up to 84. In the Reuters article the count is increased to 32 employees being treated with Cipro as of early Friday and another 20 being treated with doxycycline with 27 being given the anthrax vaccine as a protective measure. As if amateur hour wasn’t bad enough in D.C., now we have it at the CDC.