PLANS for a top-security 鈥渂iosafety level 4鈥� lab in downtown Boston have become embroiled in controversy. After the city approved construction of the $128 million lab this month, it emerged that the university had failed to come clean about an incident in which workers were exposed to potentially deadly tularaemia bacteria in an existing, less secure lab.
On 20 January, Boston University officials confirmed that three lab workers contracted tularaemia last year after handling a supposedly harmless strain. The lab notified public health authorities in November, months after the first two cases in May. It says these were not diagnosed until a month after the third case in September. Critics argue the slow diagnosis was inexcusable, and the public should have been informed. University and health officials say there was no need for this because tularaemia cannot be passed from person to person.
鈥淭hree lab workers contracted tularaemia after handling a supposedly harmless strain鈥�
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This wasn鈥檛 the first such incident. In 2000, a dozen workers were exposed to tularaemia after handling clinical samples without special precautions. The samples came from a man who was suspected of having caught fatal tularaemia from a rabbit, but the lab was not told about these suspicions. That time the workers were given antibiotics, and none fell ill. 鈥淐an we trust this lab with more dangerous organisms?鈥� asks Ed Hammond of the Sunshine Project, a biodefence watchdog group based in Texas.
Tularaemia is considered a bioterror risk because as few as 10 airborne bacteria are enough to cause infection. There are currently four BSL4 labs in the US and one in Canada.
