Correspondence

Laboratory-Acquired Sabiá Virus Infection

N Engl J Med 1995; 333:1716December 21, 1995

Article

To the Editor:

In their editorial (Aug. 3 issue),1 Drs. Murphy and Johnson recommend that the causes of a laboratory accident at Yale University in the summer of 1994 should be carefully reviewed. In fact, shortly after the incident Yale requested two reviews, one by an internal biologic-safety committee of distinguished Yale scientists and a second by an external review committee of distinguished U.S. scientists convened at Yale's request by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Both of these helpful and constructive reviews established human error as the principal factor in the incident and recommended improvements in laboratory procedures to prevent a recurrence. Both reviews were publicly released by Yale last December, and all their recommendations have been implemented.

Robert W. Ryder, M.D.
Elan J. Gandsman, Ph.D.
Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06520-8034

1 References

1. 1

   Murphy FA, Johnson KM. An exotic viral disease acquired in a laboratory. N Engl J Med 1995;333:317-318
   Full Text | Web of Science | Medline

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   Graham Lloyd, Michael P. Kiley†. 2010. Safety in the Virology Laboratory. .
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   Philippe Brouqui, Vincenzo Puro, Francesco M Fusco, Barbara Bannister, Stephan Schilling, Per Follin, René Gottschalk, Robert Hemmer, Helena C Maltezou, Kristi Ott, Renaat Peleman, Christian Perronne, Gerard Sheehan, Heli Siikamäki, Peter Skinhoj, Giuseppe Ippolito. (2009) Infection control in the management of highly pathogenic infectious diseases: consensus of the European Network of Infectious Disease. The Lancet Infectious Diseases 9:5, 301-311
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