Copyright 1997 by Creative Loafing | Published Dec 20, 1997 | webmaster@creativeloafing.com 12/13/1997 http://www.cln.com/archives/atlanta/newsstand/121397/m_yerkes.htm
Research official lied to Creative Loafing
Two days before a 22-year-old researcher at Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center died of herpes B, a spokesperson for Yerkes lied to cover up the event that led to the young woman's death. Following up on a tip on Dec. 8, Creative Loafing questioned Yerkes spokesperson Kate Egan about an incident involving a Yerkes researcher who became ill after being splashed in the eye with a monkey's infected bodily fluid or excrement. "We've had nothing like that happen," said Egan, although, at that time, the researcher was fighting for her life at Emory University Hospital. After the researcher, Elizabeth R. Griffin, died on Dec. 10, Yerkes and Emory University called a press conference to announce her death and the circumstances surrounding it. After the information became public, Egan explained that she had complied with the family's wish not to make their daughter's illness known. "We were honest with employees from day one. They all knew. We have over a hundred employees. We knew that word would get out," Egan said. "But the family asked us to please try to keep it from getting out, so that's what I did." Although Yerkes did not release information about the transmission until the researcher died, Egan says she had prepared a press statement about the woman's illness prior to her death. Griffin's family, however, asked that the statement not be released. Neither Egan nor Emory University spokesperson Sylvia Wrobel have a copy of the statement about the researcher's illness. Wrobel says the original copy of the release was used as part of the announcement of the researcher's death. Wrobel says she and her colleagues had a plan in place for "the call" from the press -- the call that would alert Yerkes that word about the infection was out -- but Egan did not perceive the call from CL as "the call" because the newspaper had originally contacted Yerkes about an animal rights protest. Wrobel says "the call" happened to come from a local television station after Griffin died. "We would not have released the information when we did if we had not gotten the call," she says. "We would have liked to have postponed a statement for a few weeks when the incident would have been reviewed by scientific journals. But, we would have had to release it by today [Dec. 12] because a question about it came up in PrimateTalk." PrimateTalk is a national on-line chat room for primate research workers. Griffin, a 1997 graduate of Agnes Scott College, majored in biology at the prestigious women's college. She was carrying a rhesus monkey in a wire-mesh cage to a routine health check when she was splashed in the eye with the unidentified substance. The monkey was infected with the herpes B virus, a common infection among animals used for research. Although there have been only 40 recorded cases of transmission of the virus to humans from monkeys, when an infection does occur, it results in death for humans 70 percent of the time. Griffin died after being ill for six weeks, suffering paralysis and losing the ability to breathe on her own. "She was a heroic young woman," says Wrobel. "The last thing she would have wanted is for her death to be used against animal research by these (animal rights) groups." -- Stephanie Ramage
12/13/1997 http://www.cln.com/archives/atlanta/newsstand/121397/m_yerkes.htm
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