14. Death by an already eradicated virus
Professor Henry Bedson of Birmingham, England., was a researcher working on what seemed to be a smallpox virus, an organism thought to be already eradicated at the time. He subjected the virus into centrifuging, a process which is common, but risky. If one of the bottles in the centrifuge breaks, it could spread the virus inside the room and infect those inside it. Bedson and his colleagues were not very worried because their vaccine was up-to-date. But one of the bottles did break, causing the virus to escape, looking for a host as it traveled through one of lab’s vents. And one of the vents led up to an office where a medical photographer, Janet Parker, was working late, who, by then, was already breathing in the pathogen. Weeks went by with Janet not knowing she had already contracted the disease. Eventually, she developed a high fever and symptoms of the disease started to show. She eventually died from her infection. The source of the virus was traced to Bedon’s laboratory. The incident was widely covered by the media which led Bedson to take his own life.
