Scientist felled by B epidemic strain

The British scientist struck down with meningococcal disease was infected with the same strain of bacteria she had been studying at work, officials revealed yesterday.

Jeannette Adu-Bobie had to have both legs and a hand amputated at Wellington Hospital two weeks ago after becoming critically ill with blood poisoning caused by the disease.

The scientist, who worked at the Environmental Science and Research laboratory, is one of five recent cases of the disease in the Wellington region.

Yesterday, public health official Mike Cosman said that blood tests had revealed the scientist was infected with the B epidemic strain of meningococcal bacteria, which is the most common in New Zealand, causing up to 75 per cent of cases of the disease each year.

It is the same strain that was being worked on at her laboratory in Porirua where Ms Adu-Bobie, an employee of Chiron Vaccines, had been based for three weeks as a visiting scientist.

But Mr Cosman said the test results did not help identify where or how the worker was exposed.

"Our investigations of the lab's procedures and practices showed early on that it was extremely unlikely the infection was lab-acquired, and nothing we have heard or seen since has caused us to revise that opinion."

Officials from Occupational Safety and Health had received a copy of an independent audit commissioned by the laboratory, and the investigating officer hoped to speak to Ms Adu-Bobie when she was well enough. A final report is expected at the end of next month.

Of the five cases of meningococcal disease reported in the Wellington region in late March and early April, only one - Ms Adu-Bobie's - was caused by the epidemic strain of meningococcal B disease which the New Zealand vaccine is designed to combat.

Blood test results showed one of the cases was meningococcal C, which accounted for 8 per cent of infections in New Zealand last year. The other four were of the B strain, but only one was confirmed as the epidemic strain.

Over the past three years 67 per cent of confirmed cases of meningococcal disease in the Wellington region had been of the B epidemic strain.

- NZPA