It's a Deadly Business / State Lab Gets Top Clearance to Investigate Biosecurity Threats and Hazards

Oct 06, 03:19 AM

Current Headlines: By AJ HOSTETLER

In the event of a deadly outbreak of flu or a bioterrorist attack, a state laboratory in downtown Richmond could be at the center of the investigation.

Virginia's Division of Consolidated Laboratory Services, whose more than 6 million tests a year include analyzing tuberculosis cases and scrutinizing gasoline ingredients, is joining an elite group of labs around the country.

Five operating labs in the United States have the highest biosecurity ranking. Two are federal labs; two are research labs run by Texas universities, and the fifth, in Georgia, studies animal diseases.

Laboratories are categorized according to the health threat of the microorganisms they handle. The highest biosafety level is 4, or BSL-4. Under strict safety conditions, these labs study the microbes that pose a high risk of life-threatening disease that could be transmitted by air and for which there is no vaccine or treatment.

Virginia now has its own BSL-4 lab. The lab, which is not yet operating, is within a BSL-3 lab in the Division of Consolidated Laboratory Services' headquarters in Richmond's downtown biotech park. Virginia's BSL-4 lab will be used to detect and identify deadly organisms but will not conduct research, state officials said.

The likely biological suspects the lab will handle when it opens could come from a patient possibly sick with avian flu; an ill international-aid worker returning from abroad; or an airline traveler landing in Virginia with a hemorrhagic fever such as Ebola. It also could be contamination from a suspected bioterrorism attack.

"We deal with the unknowns," said DCLS Director James Pearson. "The lab gives us a safer way of handling" them.

"In this world we have today, of all these undefined threats, we just don't know what may come down the pike today or tomorrow," said Norm Crouch, chairman of the emergency preparedness committee for the Association of Public Health Laboratories. The association is a professional organization for those who work in public-health labs such as the Virginia Division of Consolidated Laboratories.

"That includes terrorism, it includes emerging infectious diseases . .. anything that poses a threat to the public," Crouch said.

The new lab will allow the state to gear up immediately when necessary to help protect Virginians from such threats, said microbiologist Barbara Mann, who heads the University of Virginia's Institutional Biosafety Committee.

"Being prepared is very important," she said. "The sooner that you identify an outbreak, then you can take steps for containment and limiting the outbreak."

The $3 million lab's opening was held up by a faulty, custom- built autoclave, which is used to sterilize equipment. In a few months, with the autoclave replaced, the lab will be commissioned, much like a ship before it goes into service. Pearson said the yearlong commissioning process involves retesting all the lab's systems and training state scientists to work in its restricted confines before it can be used. There is no set date for the lab's opening.

"We will do it as soon as we can but only when safety concerns are addressed first," Pearson said.

The BSL-4 lab itself is a "glovebox," a 30-foot-long lab within the state's BSL-3 lab. It is sealed by specialized ventilation and waste-management systems.

Laboratory workers will work in the BSL-4 unit in pairs while wearing disposable scrub suits, respirators, double gloves, eye protection and shoe booties. In physically difficult conditions, they'll manipulate pipettes and other equipment in special lab cabinets for no more than four hours at a time to avoid becoming tired and less attentive to safety precautions.

In addition to testing samples from ailing Virginians, the BSL-4 lab could be used if national laboratories are overwhelmed with a disease outbreak or a bioterrorist attack. For example, during the 2001 anthrax attacks, the DCLS facility tested more than 1,000 cases.

George Foresman, who recently left the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, pushed for the BSL-4 lab when he headed homeland security under Gov. Mark R. Warner. Foresman said the anthrax attacks showed the importance of having a well-equipped and secure lab in Virginia as backup in a national or regional health emergency.

"Every minute counts when you're dealing with a [biological] event," Foresman said. "It was an investment in now, but it was also a very significant investment in the future."

Pearson said he can't predict how often the lab will be needed. However, he plans to have senior state scientists work in the lab with less hazardous samples at least every other week to maintain training. In recent years, university scientists who failed to follow safety protocols have been sickened while investigating less dangerous microbes.

"Mistakes happen when people . . . have to stop and think about what you're doing," Pearson said.

Crouch, who is also a former director of the Minnesota public- health laboratory, said that despite any potential fear factor, the lab makes Virginians safer.

"Understandably, communities sometimes get concerned about this kind of [lab], but the truth of the matter is that if you have this kind of facility, the community is much more protected if the laboratory has to deal with one of these agents."

Levels of safety

Microbiological laboratories are designed to handle pathogens that might pose risks of infectious disease. A worldwide system of four biosafety levels (BSL) is used.

-- BSL-1: Labs that work with agents not known to cause disease.

-- BSL-2: For agents associated with human disease, such as AIDS.

-- BSL-3: For infectious microbes that might cause serious, potentially lethal human disease as the result of transmission through the air, such as anthrax, brucellosis and tuberculosis.

-- BSL-4: For dangerous or exotic agents posing a high risk of serious and life-threatening disease, including smallpox, hantavirus, Ebola and other viral hemorrhagic fevers, and some tick- borne encephalitis viruses.

Making sure it's safe

BSL-4 labs are designed in accordance with federal guidelines to prevent the release of microorganisms into the environment. Some of the physical measures taken by the Virginia Division of Consolidated Laboratory Services include:

-- located in an isolated zone;

-- double-door entry;

-- directional inward airflow;

-- single-pass air;

-- dedicated supply and exhaust and decontamination systems;

-- double-door autoclaves;

-- sealed walls, floors and ceilings;

-- limited laboratory access;

-- sealed electrical outlets;

-- walls painted with impervious epoxy; and

-- change rooms for lab scientists to don protective gear.

Contact A.J. Hostetler at (804) 649-6355 or ahostetler@timesdispatch.com.

ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO

Originally published by Times-Dispatch Staff Writer.

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