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Petition for VA Accountability
We, the undersigned,
respectfully request that VA Central Office convene an investigative
committee to review the actions of the Pittsburgh VA Healthcare System
regarding the closure of the Special Pathogens Laboratory and the
destruction of a scientifically valuable collection of microorganisms.
The collection of microorganisms
was created and preserved by Victor L. Yu, M.D. and Janet E. Stout,
Ph.D. over a 26-year period in the Special Pathogens Laboratory in
Pittsburgh. The entire collection was incinerated without informing
Drs. Yu and Stout. This action was taken despite efforts by Drs. Yu and
Stout to appropriately transfer the collection to the University of
Pittsburgh.
The collection contained stored
patient sera, urine samples from patients infected by unusual
Legionella species and respiratory tract specimens yielding rare
Legionella species dating back to 1979. Among the several thousand
Legionella isolates destroyed were environmental and patient
isolates from 20 VA hospitals experiencing outbreaks of
hospital-acquired Legionnaires' disease. For some of us, Legionella
isolates from our VA hospital were among those destroyed.
These Legionella isolates
and specimens were being stored for future epidemiologic investigation;
providing an invaluable resource for elucidating the source of
Legionnaires’ disease at VA Medical Centers. As importantly, emergence
of resistance of Legionella to disinfectants has been reported by
us and the storage of the original isolates from each hospital allows
documentation of this possibility in the event of failure of
disinfection. Finally, molecular fingerprinting would allow individual
VA hospitals to ascertain the source of the infecting Legionella
in VA patients should future outbreaks occur.
Among the isolates in the
collection were several thousand well -characterized microorganisms from
multinational observational studies. These disease-causing strains of
Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Enterobacter species, Enterococcus
species, Bacteroides fragilis, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia,
Klebsiella species, Candida species and Cryptococcus
neoformans were also destroyed.
This unique collection of specimens and isolates were being used to
develop new diagnostic tests, new therapies, and to study resistance and
mechanisms of disease transmission. The results of these studies
benefited veterans nationwide.
To remove the appearance of
impropriety, we request that an outside scientific body with no
relationship to the VA be convened to ascertain the appropriateness of
this action.
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