Researcher Dies After Studying Plague Bacteria 143
Malcolm J. Casadaban, a molecular genetics professor at the University of Chicago, died last Sunday, seemingly from an infection of a weakened form of Yersinia pestis, the bacteria that causes the plague. "Because this form of the bacteria is not known to cause problems in healthy people, special safety procedures are not required to handle it, said Dr. Kenneth Alexander, a virologist and chief of pediatric infections at the U. of C. Medical Center. Lab researchers who work with the bacteria would typically wear gloves, a lab coat and protective goggles, and the bacteria would be disposed of in a biohazard bag and heated for about two hours, Alexander said. Two key questions in Casadaban's death will be whether there was anything different about the strain of bacteria he was handling and whether Casadaban had any underlying conditions that may have made him more susceptible to infection."
A brief rememberence of Prof. Casadaban (Score:5, Interesting)
I took a lab class from him on genetic engineering in the late 90s. Though he was a little eccentric at times, and spoke with an incredibly soft voice, I remember him as a professor who would spend countless hours with the undergraduate students, teaching them to learn the basics of molecular biology - the U of C will be worse off without this devotion, without him. He even wrote me a recommendation letter for graduate school, but I've lost touch with him since then, now, to my infinite regret. May he rest in piece.
Cause of Death? (Score:5, Interesting)
"An initial autopsy showed that Casadaban "showed no obvious cause of death"", the report goes on to state that the found the bacteria in his bloodstream.
What was his white cell count? Were cytokines present in his bloodstream? Was his lymphatic system showing signs of duress (engorged, trapped glands; cell death)?
I'm also a bit wary of the fact that the report was released from the University Medical Center where the man worked, not the local Medical Examiner's office. I'd love to see a second conclusion, and not have to fear that the University is doing this as a publicity stunt for their research programme.
Going to be a real embarassment if we find out he died of a cheeseburger, or embollism, or insulin-related shock.
If I get out of my car and promptly drop dead, you're not going to say that driving my car was the cause of death.
Re:We're screwed (Score:2, Interesting)
If I understand correctly, the plague wasn't transmitted from human to human, but rather from lice to humans. Since lice are nowhere near as prevalent as they used to be, you don't normally have to fear an outbreak.
Not necessarily. [amazon.com]
The author makes a convincing argument that the Black Death was actually spread by droplet based transmission.
Re:We're screwed (Score:3, Interesting)
Sales of Rid and Nix, which increase every fall with the new school year starting up and winter coming, disagree. Lice are still plentiful.
Re:We're screwed (Score:5, Interesting)
That's true. In fact, most public campgrounds here in California have signs warning of plague danger and advising people to keep their distance from ground squirrels, which are known carriers of the yersinia pestis bacterium.
Re:The safety measures are wholly inadequate. (Score:3, Interesting)
Smallpox is still out in the wild. Vaccines are a calculated risk. You have to figure you will injure or kill XX number of people with the vaccine, versus the number of people that will die as a result of another epidemic. I believe the numbers recently flip-flopped and the risk of harm from the vaccine has become worse than the risk of contracting the disease and many areas are no longer requiring it. The whole controversy over mercury in the vaccines causing autism is still hotly debated, though.
My building (Score:5, Interesting)
So I work in the same building as this lab, use the same elevators, touch the same door handles etc. I'm not too worried, but plenty of people are and have been since they started working with your *more dangerous than ecoli* varieties. What really pissed me off is that if I had not heard about this from a PI down the hall yeasterday I would have found out about this through /. I can understand why the UoC doesnt send out alerts like this via email to everyone, but some people do need to know. The PI down the hall basically said "shit shit, god damn it, shit, the cdc will be here to deal with and who knows if we'll be allowed to stay," probably a slight over-reaction, but as my mother the md mph said "this is one of those NEVER things." Anyway, I was very sorry to hear about this, also as TFA says, we really dont know if this was a opportunistic infection that was able to get in because he was already sick or what.
Re:We're screwed (Score:3, Interesting)
The key is antibiotic as much as anything.
Middle ages folks had very little concept of contagion prevention.. germs weren't even discovered for a few hundred more years. I'd think that perhaps the middle ages plague was a combination of nasty things.. remember, it wasn't one "great plague" but a series of famines and pandemics over 50-75 years, peaking every 10-15 years killing 25%-50% of towns. The ones that survived benefited two-fold. First they passed on natural immunity to our generations that helps slow the spread, and second they were suffering effects of extreme overpopulation, few children were being born and mortality was high. With fewer people they were able to grow stronger to resist it until the disease burned out.
Re:The safety measures are wholly inadequate. (Score:2, Interesting)
Actually, exterminating the rodents is not the cure. Sprinkle malathion or parathion on cotton balls and scatter them around where the kids and pets cannot get them. Rodents gather them up and use them in their nests. The stuff kills off all the riders the rodents have on them. and walaa, no more mites, lice, fleas, etc. This has been tried and is effective for wiping out the deer tick - mouse vector for lyme disease in whole counties for years. I do not understand why it is not used more commonly. I guess maybe some liberals objected to inhumane treatment of lice. Someone called Peta?
Similar to the story of Karen Wetterhahn (Score:4, Interesting)