Melioidosis and safety in the clinical laboratory.
Human infection with Pseudomonas pseudomallei, the causative agent of melioidosis, typically produces subclinical disease and an asymptomatic carrier state; occasionally clinical illness, frequently with a fatal outcome, may occur. Consequently, to help protect staff from laboratory-acquired melioidosis, microbiological and biomedical laboratories must have adequate facilities for safe work procedures and laboratory staff must engage in safe work practices. Recommendations from a melioidosis-endemic, diagnostic laboratory for the prevention of laboratory-acquired infection with this bacterium are essentially Category 3 (Advisory Committee on Dangerous Pathogens), Risk Group 3 (Australian Standards) or Biosafety Level 2 (National Institutes of Health) precautions. These include safeguards for centrifugation, prohibiting the 'sniff' test and the use of a biological safety cabinet for sputum processing, for subculture of stock strains, for preparation of antigen and for research studies but not for routine diagnostic techniques with P. pseudomallei.
Department of Pathology, Townsville General Hospital, Queensland, Australia.
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D006746:Hospital Bed Capacity, 500 and over; D006769:Hospitals, General; D017053:Infection Control / Q000379:methods*; D007757:Laboratory Infection / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D017056:Medical Laboratory Personnel; D008554:Melioidosis / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D016272:Occupational Health; D011793:Queensland / Q000453:epidemiology