Plague, fatal - USA (05): (IL) lab strain susp. RFI

Date: Mon 21 Sep 2009
Source: Nature.com blog [edited]
<http://blogs.nature.com/news/thegreatbeyond/2009/09/plague_vaccine_found_in_dead_r.html>


Investigators have found a strain of the plague bacteria _Yersinia
pestis_ in the body of a University of Chicago geneticist who died last
week [13 Sep 2009] within 12 hours of his arrival at Bernard Mitchell
Hospital with "intense flu-like symptoms." The autopsy did not identify
a cause of death, according to the Chicago Tribune.

No other cases have been reported in Chicago, and none of the other
researchers exposed to the strain, used as a vaccine since the 1960s,
has fallen ill, but officials gave antibiotics to his family, friends,
and co-workers. Ken Alexander, head of pediatric infectious disease
said that the autopsy did not imply that the strain of the plague was a
public health threat. He told the Chicago Tribune that "the more likely
possibility, I'd say 999 to 1, is that there was something unusual
about him."