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Laboratory Infection of a Technician by Mimivirus
- Didier Raoult, MD, PhD;
- Patricia Renesto, PhD; and
- Philipe Brouqui, MD, PhD
- From Unité des Rickettsies, Université de la Méditerranée, 13385 Marseille, France.
Background: We recently reported the discovery (1) and genome sequencing (2) of the largest currently identified virus on earth, the mimivirus (Figure). This virus growing in amoeba was mistaken for a bacterium because it stained gram-positive. It was first isolated from a cooling tower in Bradford, United Kingdom, during the investigation of a pneumonia outbreak. We observed a high level of seroconversion to the mimivirus in patients with pneumonia (3). Because the pathogenicity of the virus is not yet established (4), we do not use specific procedures for its manipulation. A technician from our laboratory in Marseille, France, recently presented with acute pneumonia and mimivirus seroconversion. The technician regularly performed Western blot assays, including ones that documented infection with the mimivirus.
Case Report: The technician was a 38-year-old man who was tested yearly for antibodies against microorganisms that he manipulated in Western blot assays. He had never previously …
