美國CDC事故或致僱員感染埃博拉病毒

A laboratory mistake at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta may have exposed a technician to the deadly Ebola virus, federal officials said on Wednesday. The technician will be Monitored for signs of infection for 21 days, the incubation period of the disease.

聯邦官員週三稱，位於亞特蘭大的疾病控制與預防中心（Centers for Disease Control and Prevention，簡稱CDC）實驗室的一個失誤，可能已使一名技術人員接觸到致命的埃博拉病毒。這名技術人員將在21天的病毒潛伏期內接受觀察，看是否有感染的跡象。

Other employees who entered the lab — fewer than a dozen — where the mistake occurred are being examined for possible exposure. So far, it appears that none of them were exposed, said Thomas Skinner, a C.D.C. spokesman.

還有不到12名工作人員進入過出現失誤的實驗室。他們正在接受體檢，以確定是否接觸了病毒。CDC的發言人托馬斯·斯金納(Thomas Skinner)稱，目前來看，他們似乎都沒有接觸到病毒。

The samples were properly contained and never left the disease centers, so there is no risk to the public, officials said.

聯邦官員稱，這些樣本已經被妥善封存，從來沒有帶到CDC之外的地方，因而不會對公衆構成風險。

The error occurred on Monday, when a high-security lab at the C.D.C., working with Ebola virus from the epidemic in West Africa, sent samples that should have been killed to another C.D.C. laboratory, down the hall.

此次失誤發生在本週一。當時，一間負責處理來自西非疫區的埃博拉病毒的安全級別較高的CDC實驗室，打算把一些滅活的病毒樣本送到位於走廊另一頭的另一間CDC實驗室。

But the first lab sent the wrong samples — ones that may have contained the live virus. The second lab was not equipped to handle live Ebola. The technician who worked with the samples wore gloves and a gown, but no face shield, and may have been exposed.

但是，第一間實驗室送錯了樣本——裏面可能包含活病毒。第二間實驗室並沒有處理活病毒的裝備。經手這些樣本的那名技術人員戴了手套，穿了大褂，但沒有戴面罩，因此可能接觸到了病毒。

The mixup of the samples was discovered on Tuesday, Dr. Stuart Nichol, chief of the C.D.C.'s Viral Special Pathogens Branch, said in an interview. He ascribed it to human error.

CDC病毒性特殊病原體部門的主任斯圖爾特·尼科爾博士(Stuart Nichol)接受採訪時稱，這次樣本混淆事件於週二浮出水面。他將責任歸咎於人爲失誤。

The accident is especially troubling because dangerous samples of anthrax and flu were similarly mishandled at the C.D.C. just months ago, eroding confidence in an agency that has long been one of the most highly respected scientific research centers in the world.

這起事故格外令人不安，因爲就在幾個月前，CDC對炭疽和流感危險樣本的處理也出現過類似的失誤，影響了人們對這家長期以來在全世界廣受讚譽的科研機構的信心。

The C.D.C. promised last summer to improve its safety procedures and chose a panel of outside experts to advise it on how to do so.

今年夏天，CDC承諾改善安全流程，並挑選了一個外部專家小組提供相關建議。

“I’m working on it until the issue is resolved,” the agency’s director, Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, said in an interview in July.

“我將付出努力，直到這個問題得到解決，”CDC主任托馬斯·R·弗裏登博士(Thomas R. Frieden)7月接受採訪時說。

Under harsh questioning from members of Congress that month, Dr. Frieden admitted that the errors at C.D.C. labs were not isolated mishaps, but rather part of a broad pattern of unsafe practices. He called one of the episodes a “tipping point” that had forced agency officials to realize they needed to take action.

也是在那個月，在國會議員的強烈質疑下，弗裏登承認，CDC實驗室的失誤不是孤立的偶然事件，而是更大範圍的不安全操作傾向的一部分。他表示，其中一起事件是迫使機構官員意識到必須採取行動的“引爆點”。

Reacting to the latest accident, safety experts expressed outrage. Richard H. Ebright, a molecular biologist at Rutgers University and an expert on biological weapons, said: “They did not learn. They do not learn. They seem incapable of learning.”

安全專家們表達了對這起最新事故的憤怒。羅格斯大學(Rutgers University)的分子生物學家與生物武器專家理查德·H·埃布賴特(Richard H. Ebright)說：“他們以前不吸取教訓，現在也沒有，似乎就是無法得到教訓。”

He said the errors were inexcusable. Labs that produce samples of killed virus should test to make sure they are dead, he said, and labs receiving those samples should test them before working with them.

他認爲，這些失誤不可寬恕。實驗室在送出滅活樣本之前應該進行檢測，確保它們已經失活，而接收這些樣本的實驗室在處理之前也應該進行檢測。

The previous incidents occurred last spring and summer. In June, C.D.C. scientists sent anthrax samples, supposedly killed, to laboratories that were not equipped to handle dangerous pathogens. But the bacteria turned out to be live, because a deactivating technique too weak to wipe out anthrax spores had been used. Dozens of employees were offered antibiotics and anthrax vaccine; none became infected.

此前的幾次失誤發生在今年春天和夏天。6月，CDC的科學家將本以爲已經被滅活了的炭疽樣本，送至多家未配備處理危險病原體設備的實驗室。但後來證明，這些細菌還是活的，因爲之前使用的滅活技術力度不夠，未能消滅炭疽孢子。數十名僱員攝入了抗生素並注射了炭疽疫苗，不過沒人被感染。

The head of the laboratory that shipped the bacteria resigned a few weeks after the mistakes came to light. Although C.D.C. officials gave no reason for his resignation and said it was voluntary, they had previously indicated that they feared workers in that laboratory had grown careless because of lax supervision.

事故曝光幾周後，送出了炭疽細菌的那家實驗室的負責人辭職。儘管CDC的官員未透露他辭職的原因，並稱其屬於自願，但他們之前曾表示，擔心該實驗室的工作人員因爲監管不嚴而變得粗心大意。

In another blunder, a C.D.C. lab accidentally contaminated a relatively benign flu sample with a dangerous H5N1 bird flu strain that can be fatal in humans, and then shipped it to a laboratory at the Department of Agriculture. Scientists at the receiving lab detected the error, and no one was harmed.

在另一個重大失誤中，一家CDC實驗室不小心讓危險的H5N1禽流感毒株污染了一份相對良性的流感樣本，後又將其送到了農業部的一家實驗室。接收樣本的那家實驗室的科學家發現了錯誤，無人受到感染。H5N1禽流感對人體是致命的。

Although the incident occurred in May, senior C.D.C. officials were not told about it until July 7, and Dr. Frieden did not hear about it until two days after that. He said in an interview in July that he was “stunned and appalled” by the incident.

儘管事故是5月發生的，但CDC的高級官員直到7月7日才被告知此事，而弗裏登本人則是在那之後兩天才聽說。他在7月接受採訪時稱，自己對該事故感到“震驚和錯愕”。

The mistakes led the C.D.C. to appoint a panel of outside safety experts in July to advise Dr. Frieden on how to correct sloppy procedures at government laboratories. The C.D.C. temporarily closed its flu and bioterrorism laboratories, and halted shipments of all infectious agents from its high-security labs until those labs could pass muster with a newly formed safety panel within the agency.

這些失誤促使CDC在7月任命了一個由外部安全專家組成的委員會，就如何糾正政府實驗室馬虎的程序爲弗裏登提供諮詢意見。CDC曾短暫地關閉了下屬的流感和生物恐怖主義實驗室，並中止從安全級別較高的實驗室運送一切致病原，直到這些實驗室能得到CDC內部新成立的一個安全委員會的認可。

In August, the special pathogens branch — where the Ebola accident occurred on Monday — received permission to start sending out infectious agents again.

今年8月，特殊病原體部門——週一埃博拉事故的發生地——獲得許可，重新開始送出致病原。

Dr. Nichol said that the high-security lab where the mistake occurred had prepared two sets of fluid samples from guinea pigs infected with Ebola. The fluid was handled as if it contained live virus, though it is not certain that the virus was present.

尼科爾稱，出現失誤的這家安全級別較高的實驗室準備了兩組液體樣本，均採自感染了埃博拉的豚鼠。這些液體被當做含有活病毒接受了處理，但實驗室並不確定其中是否真有病毒。

One set of samples was to remain in the high-security lab so that researchers could try to isolate the virus from it. The other was to be treated with a solution that would kill the virus and then be sent to a lower-level laboratory where a technician would try to extract genetic material from it.

按照計劃，一組樣本將留在這間高安全級別的實驗室，以便研究人員能嘗試將病毒從液體中分離出來。另一組樣本中，將加入一種能殺死病毒的溶液，然後再被送到級別較低的一間實驗室。那裏的技術人員將嘗試提取其中的遺傳物質。

Somehow, the samples were switched: The ones with killed virus stayed in the high-security lab, and the ones that may have contained live virus were sent to the lower-level lab and processed there.

不知何故，這兩組樣本被調換了：已滅活的那一組樣本留在了高級別實驗室，而可能含有活病毒的那一組則被送到了低級別實驗室，並在那裏接受了處理。

The accident is being investigated, said Barbara Reynolds, a C.D.C. spokeswoman.

CDC發言人芭芭拉·雷諾茲(Barbara Reynolds)表示，事故正在接受調查。

“We’ll learn from this mistake as we’ve learned from the others,” she said.

“我們會像對待其他失誤一樣，從這次失誤中吸取教訓，”她說。