Continuing Importance of Laboratory-Acquired Infections

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Abstract
A summary of reported laboratory infections, including 418 cases from the USA and 223 cases from other parts of the world, which have occurred since 1950 is presented. The distribution of these cases according to etiologic agents is compared with that of 1342 previously published cases occurring in the US prior to 1950. Viral infections predominated in the recent series, accounting for 39% of the total. There were 13 deaths, 11 of which were due to viruses. Tularemia, brucellosis and tuberculosis were the most frequent bacterial infections while encephalitis, hepatitis and Coxsackie virus infections head the list of virus infections. Rickettsiae, fungi and parasites accounted for 17, 9 and 5% of the total cases respectively. Known accidents were responsible for 25% of the cases. The types of accidents, the difficulty in determining dosage and the possibility of infection with supposedly attenuated agents are discussed.

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