A CDC technician “remains well” and continues to be monitored for symptoms after the employee was potentially exposed to the Ebola virus during a mistake this week at an agency biocontainment lab in Atlanta, a CDC spokeswoman said Friday. The health risk to the worker is “deemed low,” so the technician has not been required to be isolated and is not facing “other restrictions,” said CDC spokeswoman Barbara Reynolds. The monitoring of that employee will span 21 days.
A sample of material that may have contained the virus was accidentally moved from a high-level containment lab to a lower-level lab this week at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Other CDC staff members had contact with the laboratory room where the sample was was processed. Agency officials contacted 11 workers following detection of the error. Of those 11, “none require monitoring,” Reynolds said.
CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden said he is “troubled by this incident” at the agency’s Ebola lab. He ordered an inspection into the missteps that led to the breach.
“I have directed that there be a full review of every aspect of the incident and that CDC take all necessary measures,” Frieden said in a statement Wednesday.
Bill Briggs