Russian Researcher Dies After Contact With Ebola Virus

Reuters Health reports that a researcher in a Siberian virology laboratory died after pricking herself with a syringe containing Ebola virus, a spokeswoman from the lab said.

Most outbreaks have occurred in Africa, far from the Siberian lab where the senior technician was experimenting on guinea pigs when the accident happened on May 5, 2004. She died several weeks later.

The state-owned vector research center at Novosibirsk, located in Siberia, conducts research into deadly diseases such as SARS and anthrax.

Along with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the laboratory is one of only two places with official stockpiles of smallpox, which killed around 300 million people in the last century.

After the accident, the woman was hospitalized in a ward specially equipped to contain virulent diseases. Anyone who came into contact with her was put under observation for three weeks.

Source: Clinical Infectious Diseases