Glanders in a Military Research Microbiologist

Details

• Personal Author:
  Deitchman, Scott D. ; Sokas R
• Description:
  To the Editor: The case report by Srinivasan et al. (July 26 issue) makes one wonder when glanders was first suspected as this patient's illness. The patient's work history included potential exposure to Burkholderia mallei without personal protective equipment (gloves). Yet the patient was treated twice with agents not indicated for B. mallei infection. Once the organism was isolated, appropriate therapy was administered. When did the patient describe his occupational exposure? For researchers with occupational infections, the taking of a relevant occupational history that leads to prompt, appropriate therapy can be lifesaving. A delay in history taking and delayed specific therapy can result in prolonged illness or death. Greater attention to safety precautions by researchers and vigilance by research managers will prevent many of these types of exposure. The importance of the occupational history is well documented. Could a support system be available that would rapidly provide information regarding occupational exposure to clinicians caring for ill researchers? Some research institutions actively encourage patients to volunteer occupational information to the physician, but this will not help if the patient does not know about the exposure or is incapacitated. We need to find or develop systems to ensure that physicians receive the necessary information during the initial evaluation. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Communicable Diseases Health Personnel Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Safety Safety Management
• Keywords:
  Health-care-personnel Infection-control Occupational-exposure Occupational-health Physicians Safety-measures Work-analysis Worker-health Workers
• ISSN:
  0028-4793
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Georgia ; OSHA Region 4
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  OD - Office of the Director
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  345
• Issue:
  22
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20021712
• Citation:
  N Engl J Med 2001 Nov; 345(22):1644
• Contact Point Address:
  Scott Deitchman, M.D., M.P.H., National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Atlanta, GA 30333
• Email:
  sed2@cdc.gov
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2002
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Source Full Name:
  New England Journal of Medicine
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:d8f3cb33defd015cca65a3d73beae721c906c818f9e4b947db4aa1bfbc6fecd85b40533f5922936f51987dbafa67491485b43fa5e9bb7e88777710e06e8f1885
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/198827/cdc_198827_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 50.10 KB ]