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Volume 16, Number 3—March 2010
Perspective

Preparing a Community Hospital to Manage Work-related Exposures to Infectious Agents in BioSafety Level 3 and 4 Laboratories

George F. RisiComments to Author , Marshall E. Bloom, Nancy P. Hoe, Thomas Arminio, Paul Carlson, Tamara Powers, Heinz Feldmann, and Deborah Wilson
Author affiliations: Infectious Disease Specialists, PC, Missoula, Montana, USA (G.F. Risi); St. Patrick Hospital and Health Sciences Center, Missoula (T. Powers); National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA (G.F. Risi, N.P. Hoe, T. Arminio, P. Carlson, D. Wilson); Rocky Mountain Laboratories, Hamilton, Montana, USA (M.E. Bloom, H. Feldmann)

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Table 2

Infections caused by laboratory exposure to hemorrhagic fever viruses*

Virus Incident
Ebola Fingerstick while manipulating infected guinea pig tissue, 1977 (5); percutaneous exposure to blood from a Zaire Ebola virus–infected rodent, 2004 (7)
Marburg 3 laboratory acquired infections since the mid-1980s; 1 death occurred in Russia; no details available (8)
Crimean–Congo hemorrhagic fever 8 cases before 1980 compiled by SALS; no details available (9)
Lassa 1 case reported in 1970 with limited details provided (10)
Junin 21 cases before 1980 compiled by SALS; no details available (9)
Machupo 1 person exposed to aerosolized blood from a broken test tube (11)

*SALS, Subcommittee on Arbovirus Laboratory Safety.

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