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.
Ashdown
L R
LR
Department of Pathology, Townsville General Hospital, Queensland, Australia.
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