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Researcher dies after contracting virus from monkey
December 11, 1997
Web posted at: 8:46 p.m. EST (0146 GMT)ATLANTA (CNN) -- A researcher at Emory University's primate center has died after contracting herpes B from a monkey, the center announced Thursday.
The researcher was a young woman employed at Emory's Yerkes Primate Center, a facility known for AIDS research. The woman, whose identity was not revealed at the request of her family, died Wednesday, about six weeks after she contracted the virus.
"This is the most profoundly sad moment of an entire career for me," said Dr. Tom Gordon, who has worked at Yerkes since 1970.
The woman was hit in the eye by an as-yet-unidentified fluid as she was moving a caged rhesus monkey, Gordon said. The woman didn't think the incident was significant until she developed symptoms about 10 days later.
The herpes B virus is common in monkeys but can be deadly in humans. About 70 percent of the humans who contract the disease die.
Only about 40 cases of humans contracting herpes B have been reported since 1933, when the first case of a person catching the virus was identified, said a Yerkes spokeswoman.
"There is no risk to the general public in what has happened here," the spokeswoman added.
The most common mode of infection is through animal bites and scratches. Exposure can also occur if a human comes in contact with monkey saliva, secretions or tissue.
In 1991, a veterinarian died after contracting herpes B from a monkey at HRP Inc., an Alice, Texas, facility that supplies monkeys to research centers.
In June, the scientific community was stunned by the work-related death of a cancer researcher at Dartmouth College. Karen Wetterhahn, 48, succumbed to mercury poisoning after as little as a drop of a rare toxic compound apparently seeped through her latex gloves.
Wetterhahn, a chemistry professor whose specialty was the dangers of heavy metals, told college investigators she remembered spilling some drops of dimethylmercury in August 1996. Tests in January 1997 showed she had 80 times the lethal dose of mercury in her blood.
The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration later fined Dartmouth $9,000, saying it had violated safety standards. The college was ordered to step up training in laboratories, hire a qualified chemical hygiene officer and form a special committee to address safety issues.
Yerkes' Gordon said that during his three decades at the Atlanta facility, "we've never so much as had a serious injury beyond a couple of bite wounds with a day or two of medical care."
"To have to face you to report a tragic death is absolutely an awful experience," he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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