A call to arms--well, pens and e-mails at least

[Guest guest]

NOW is the time to contact your congresspersons about this bit of

government stupidity. Matt Klein

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_462453.html

Pathogen lab will close at VA

By Robin Acton

TRIBUNE-REVIEW

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

The Special Pathogens Laboratory at the VA Pittsburgh

Healthcare System, known worldwide for its groundbreaking research in

Legionnaires' disease, will close Friday.

When it does, hospitals across the nation might be hard-pressed to find a

laboratory to test for the deadly bacteria found in tap water.

" This absolutely will jeopardize lives, " Dr. Victor L. Yu,

chief of the VA's Infectious Disease Section, said Tuesday.

" Outbreaks will be missed; we can't do testing for any more

hospitals. We have been given 48 hours. "

Dr. Janet Stout, the lab's director, was shocked by the hospital

administration's decision.

" It seems to me the VA, either locally or nationally, could have

found a better solution, " she said.

Yu is a tenured staff member at the University of Pittsburgh. Stout said

she was demoted to a " bench technician " in the VA's

microbiology laboratory.

Five others lost their jobs July 5 and will lose their health insurance

benefits at the end of the month, Yu said.

The lab's closing comes 30 years to the day after the event that gave

Legionnaires' disease its name.

A form of bacterial pneumonia, Legionnaires' is best known for a deadly

outbreak that killed 34 people and sickened 221 others attending the 58th

Pennsylvania American Legion Convention in Philadelphia July 21-24, 1976.

The VA research team is credited with later discovering that water is the

source of the disease, developing testing and disinfection methods to

prevent it, and finding the right antibiotics to cure it.

People most at risk of contracting the disease are heavy smokers,

hospital patients, people with cancer and anyone with a compromised

immune system.

The lab's terminated employees have remained on the job as unpaid

volunteers to process specimens from the Pittsburgh facility and other

hospitals around the nation, Yu said. He said specimens from a VA

hospital and a privately owned hospital in the West were tested even

though hospital administrators told him not to do so.

" I was explicitly told not to process them, but I had to make a

decision. Should I do what they say or follow my conscience? I decided to

process the specimens. "

Yu said nearly all tested positive for Legionnaires'.

" If we hadn't done it, these hospitals wouldn't know what they were

dealing with, " he said.

Yu said hospitals paid a fee for the testing service and the money was

deposited in a fund held by the Veterans Research Foundation of

Pittsburgh.

" This lab is self-sufficient. It pays for itself, " he said.

Moreland, VA director in Pittsburgh and chairman of the board for

the fund, referred a call for comment to the communications office

yesterday afternoon.

Cowgill, public and community relations coordinator in that office,

said the laboratory's purpose was research, not commercial testing. He

said testing for private facilities is not permitted in government

buildings.

" There are no contractual agreements in place to give them

self-funding, " Cowgill said.

In a subsequent e-mailed statement, Cowgill said: " Research

functions ... operate as long as they have research funding to support

that effort. After careful review, the special pathogens lab was found to

have completed its functions. "

The statement said the lab was locally managed and " local decisions

for its operations are delegated to local management. "

Yu said he tried to appeal Moreland's decision but was denied. He turned

to state and federal lawmakers for help and faxed a letter to the

Department of Veterans Affairs in Washington, D.C., but as of late

yesterday had received no response from the government.

He wants the laboratory to remain open until the VA Central Office in

Washington can review the situation.

Cowgill did not discuss specific reasons for the lab's closing. But in a

July 5 memo obtained by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Dr. Rajiv Jain,

chief of staff at the Pittsburgh VA, expressed concern over findings in a

recent review of the laboratory's " clinical and research activities,

as well as finances. "

Jain, who did not detail the findings, indicated that all of the lab's

clinical activities would be transferred to the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare

System clinical laboratory under the supervision of Dr. Dmitriy Gutkin.

Water samples of Legionella from the Pittsburgh facility should be

submitted to the clinical laboratory.

Robin Acton can be reached at racton@... or .

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