(Image source: Wikimedia Commons )

 

BY STEVEN SPARKMAN

 

ANCHOR MEGAN MURPHY

 

A researcher in San Francisco was reportedly killed by the disease he was studying. KTVU has the story .

 

“Hospital officials say he was infected while working on a vaccine for a rare strain of bacteria that can cause a deadly bloodstream infection or meningitis.”

 

Twenty-five-year-old Richard Din worked in an infectious disease lab on a deadly strain of meningococcus. After he left work Friday night, he complained of headaches, a fever, and chills. KQED tells what happened next .

 

“The next morning, his symptoms worsened, and he developed a full body rash. The man asked his friends to take him to the hospital but became unresponsive in the car and arrived at the VA around noon without a pulse. … His death came just 17 hours after the first symptoms had appeared.”

 

So far, no one else has reported an infection, and around 60 people who came in contact with Din were given antibiotics — just in case. KCBS reports , while labs have rigorous safety protocols for working with these types of diseases, infections still happen.

 

“More than half a million people work in laboratories in the U.S. A survey of U.S. labs found a third reported at least one laboratory-associated infection.”

 

A CDC spokesperson says the lab didn’t give out vaccinations to the researchers, which is standard protocol. But in Din’s case, it might not have helped. His strain is resistant to vaccines. In fact, Din was trying to develop a vaccine for the disease that killed him. An infectious disease specialist told ABC that’s the risk researchers take, saying:

 

“...procedures and protocols can never eliminate the hazards of working with infectious diseases. ‘There are very elaborate, very thoughtfully prepared safety protocols in place, but there's always a risk,’ he said, a risk researchers carefully weigh against the benefits of vaccines and treatments that save millions of lives.”

 

People close to Din say he got into his line of work, combating infectious disease, because of the tragic death of a family member.