Injury Gives NIH Worker AIDS Virus

A National Institutes of Health employee was found Monday to have become infected with the AIDS virus through an injury at work, a published report said.

The Washington Post reported in today’s editions that federal health officials said the NIH employee became infected after a vial filled with AIDS-infected blood broke in the worker’s hand. Two similar incidents involving workers at laboratories associated with NIH have occurred but officials said this is the first accident involving an NIH employee.

Officials said the employee was diagnosed as being infected with the virus by the Clinical Center at NIH on Monday afternoon and is receiving medical treatment. The newspaper said officials have declined to discuss specifics of the accident and have requested that the employee’s sex and job title be withheld to protect the worker’s privacy.