An Exotic Viral Disease Acquired in a Laboratory

In August 1994, the public was inundated with media coverage of a laboratory accident at the Yale Arbovirus Research Unit that resulted in the hospitalization of a physician-virologist who had become infected with Sabiá virus, an obscure arenavirus from Brazil. The report by Barry et al.¹ in this issue of the Journal describes the accident, the patient's clinical care and treatment, and the biosafety-management systems used by the hospital and its clinical laboratories. From the moment the virologist sought medical care, 10 days after he was exposed to Sabiá virus and 2 days after the onset of clinical signs, it.