According to CBC News Canada, officials with the Public Health Agency of Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency made the announcement on Tuesday. They also said there was no risk to the public or other employees.
According to Dr. John Copps, director of the CFIA, after working in the Level 4 lab, the employee noticed a split in the seam of his protective suit during decontamination procedures prior to getting ready to leave the Winnipeg, Manitoba laboratory.
The South China Morning Post is reporting that Copps said all the proper emergency procedures were followed and the risk to the employee, co-workers and the public at-large was low. The employee was offered an experimental Ebola virus vaccine that has been used in trials in Africa.
Copps said the experiment involved treating six pigs with interferons, which are proteins made by cells of the immune system, and then infecting them with Ebola to see if interferons can affect the disease’s outcome. When the employee was moving one of the pigs, he noticed the split in the seam of his suit.
Health Canada and the CFIA would not say if the employee agreed to have the vaccine or if the employee was male or female, citing privacy issues, according to the Associated Press. The employee is under 21-day self-isolation and will be monitored by public health officials.
The Winnipeg laboratory employs about 600 people and is one of only a few laboratories in North America that are capable of handling dangerous pathogens requiring the highest levels of containment. In 2007, there were 15 Bio-safety Level 4 labs in the U.S. and one Level 4 lab in Canada.
