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Microbiology: a dangerous profession?

The history of science contains many cases of researchers who have died because of their professional activity. In the field of microbiology, some have died or have come close to death from infection by agents that were the subject of their research (Table 1). Infections that had a lethal outcome were usually accidental. Sometimes, however, researchers inoculated themselves with the pathogen or did not take preventive measures against the potential pathogen because they wanted to prove their hypotheses--or disprove someone else's--regarding the origin of the infection. Here is an overview of several episodes in the history of microbiology since the mid nineteenth century involving researchers or workers in fields related to microbiology who have become infected. They are considered here in their historical context to provide insights into some of the pillars of modern microbiology--The giants on whose shoulders several generations of microbiologists have stood to see further.