Laboratory Infection of a Technician by Mimivirus

Letters2 May 2006Laboratory Infection of a Technician by MimivirusDidier Raoult, MD, PhD, Patricia Renesto, PhD, and Philipe Brouqui, MD, PhDDidier Raoult, MD, PhDFrom Unité des Rickettsies, Université de la Méditerranée, 13385 Marseille, France., Patricia Renesto, PhDFrom Unité des Rickettsies, Université de la Méditerranée, 13385 Marseille, France., and Philipe Brouqui, MD, PhDFrom Unité des Rickettsies, Université de la Méditerranée, 13385 Marseille, France.Author, Article, and Disclosure Informationhttps://doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-144-9-200605020-00025 SectionsAboutFull TextPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions ShareFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail 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 ...References1. La Scola B, Audic S, Robert C, Jungang L, de Lamballerie X, Drancourt M, et al. A giant virus in amoebae. Science. 2003;299:2033. [PMID: 12663918] CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar2. Raoult D, Audic S, Robert C, Abergel C, Renesto P, Ogata H, et al. The 1.2-megabase genome sequence of Mimivirus. Science. 2004;306:1344-50. [PMID: 15486256] CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar3. La Scola B, Marrie TJ, Auffray JP, Raoult D. Mimivirus in pneumonia patients. Emerg Infect Dis. 2005;11:449-52. [PMID: 15757563] CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar4. Shevchenko A, Wilm M, Vorm O, Mann M. Mass spectrometric sequencing of proteins silver-stained polyacrylamide gels. Anal Chem. 1996;68:850-8. [PMID: 8779443] CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar5. Greub G, Raoult D. Microorganisms resistant to free-living amoebae. Clin Microbiol Rev. 2004;17:413-33. [PMID: 15084508] CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar Author, Article, and Disclosure InformationAuthors: Didier Raoult, MD, PhD; Patricia Renesto, PhD; Philipe Brouqui, MD, PhDAffiliations: From Unité des Rickettsies, Université de la Méditerranée, 13385 Marseille, France.Disclosures: None disclosed. 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