Two TB researchers on getting the disease themselves
A senior medical technologist at the South African Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative contracted tuberculosis despite working in a research environment with strict safety protocols. Her case highlights the occupational risks faced by researchers who handle TB samples daily.
Why it matters
This story underscores the persistent danger of tuberculosis even for those working in controlled laboratory settings, emphasizing the need for constant vigilance.
Being a researcher who studies TB in the lab is one thing, having the bug in your lungs is quite another. Spotlight ’s Elri Voigt spokes to two of a relatively small number of people who have experienced both.
In April, Constance Schreuder, a senior medical technologist at a large research group at the University of Cape Town , was called into the campus’ occupational health office. “I was thinking, did I do something wrong?” she recalls.
When she got there, the doctor immediately opened the window behind him before telling her she had tested positive for the very illness she has been studying at the South African Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative (SATVI) for more than two decades.
Part of Schreuder’s job involves working with post-mortem samples and tissues, as well as clinical trial samples from different TB research sites.
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