University Delays Reporting Bioresearch Accident

Texas A&M University waited one year to report that a researcher had been infected with a potential biological weapons agent, the Texas Eagle reported today (see GSN, April 28, 2004).

The scientist was working with brucella bacteria which most likely entered her body through her eyes when she was cleaning equipment used to expose mice to the material.  The bacteria cause an infectious disease normally found in animals.

The researcher was ill for several weeks before being properly diagnosed in April 2006 and has since recovered, the Eagle reported.

U.S. law requires researchers to report such accidents to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention within seven days, but university officials waited until this month to do so, according to the Eagle.

CDC officials arrived on campus this week to investigate the situation, said provost David Prior.

“We have since strengthened our safety, training and reporting procedures following the human error involved in not reporting this incident,” Prior said.  “We will be fully cooperative, and our goal is to comply with all current biosafety standards.”

Edward Hammond of the Sunshine Project, a biological research watchdog group, uncovered the reporting lapse.  Hammond was reviewing safety records of facilities competing to be selected to house a new National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (see GSN, Aug. 10, 2006).

Hammond charged university officials with purposefully trying to conceal the incident.

“They looked the law in the face and they ignored it," he said yesterday.  “It's not a lack of training, it's not a lack of knowledge, it wasn't ignorance. It's apparent it was a very deliberate decision” (Holly Huffman, The Eagle, April 18).

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