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"Positive spore counts for B. anthracis collected on Sheep's Blood Agar
(SBA) with two SAS Super 180 Microbial Air Samplers helped identify the
release site as the American Media Inc. building, the workplace of the index
patient..." From Bioscience World,
Winter 2003
SAS On Call
By Bioscience Staff
DR. SEGARAN PILLAI, Director of State Public
Health in Miami, Florida received a call last October from the CDC to rush
to West Palm Beach to trace the source of the first of a series of cases of
inhalation Bacillus anthracis. It set off two weeks of 18-hour days for Dr.
Pillai, stalking the killer microbe. “Even though we had been rehearsing for
this tragedy for three years, we never expected anything like this to happen
so soon,” he said. With the index patient terminally ill in John F. Kennedy
Hospital, Dr. Pillai and his team tested the patient’s home, grocery store,
neighborhood park and office for spore contamination.
Positive spore counts for B. anthracis collected on Sheep's Blood Agar
(SBA) with two SAS Super 180 Microbial Air Samplers helped identify the
release site as the American Media Inc. building, the workplace of the index
patient.
TEST RESULTS AT THE AMI identified a second man infected with anthrax.
Symptoms of inhalation anthrax include fever, muscle aches and fatigue that
rapidly escalate to severe systemic illness. Because he was discovered and
treated so promptly, he made a complete recovery during treatment at Cedars
Medical Center in Miami.
To meet the immediate demand of the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services to counter possible anthrax episodes in the future, David Castro,
Manager of Quality Assurance Microbiology at the Bayer Corporation, tripled
production of the antibiotic Cipro (Ciprogloxacin). To prevent
cross-contamination of each air-handling system in his five production
areas, Castro monitored each area with his SAS Microbial Air Samplers. Using
contact plates with TSA agar Lecithin P-80, he sampled volumes of a cubic
meter over 160 times a month using a color-coded map of each air handling
system.
GLOBAL HARMONIZATION OF STANDARDS and the reality of weaponized
microorganisms require rugged, accurate and efficient instrumentation. The
documented SAS collection efficiency down to one micron is a key reason
microbiologists choose SAS. Validated in the field since 1982, SAS is
referenced in the ACGIH guidelines and USP Section 1116. The ISO/DIS
14698-1.2, “Cleanrooms and associated controlled environments-Biocontamination
control”, in Annex A, Section A.3.4.2 notes that a device selected for use
should have the following characteristics: “a) impact velocity… 1) being
high enough to allow the entrapment of viable particles down to
approximately one micron, and 2) being low enough to ensure viability… .”
SAS has been engineered to comply fully with that document and meet the
requirements of the most demanding users worldwide.
For More Information Contact:
Bioscience International
11607 Magruder Lane, Rockville MD 20852-4365
Tel: 301-230-0072
FAX: 301-230-1418
Internet: BioInfo@Biosci-Intl.com
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