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Labs Scramble to Destroy Deadly Flu Samples

Posted by timothy on from the where's-jeff-goldblum-when-you-need-him dept.

An anonymous reader submits "According to this Yahoo! news story, a deadly strain of the Flu virus was mistakenly sent out to thousands of labs, mostly in the U.S., as samples for routine testing. The samples were sent starting last year, but the rush to destroy them began shortly after the WHO raised an alert last Friday following its discovery by the National Microbial Laboratory Canada on March 26. It was not immediately clear why the 1957 pandemic strain, which killed between 1 million and 4 million people -- was in the proficiency test kits routinely sent to labs."

22 of 74 comments (clear)

  1. Famous last words by Koiu+Lpoi · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Oops."

    1. Re:Famous last words by Koiu+Lpoi · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Wouldn't it really be the other way around? More like

      "Huh? Oh, crap! Oops! Hey... Cough, cough, gasp, whease, vomit, hurk, blek."

      Unless this really is the Uberflu, it's not gonna infect and show symptoms that quickly.

    2. Re:Famous last words by Curtman · · Score: 2, Interesting

      As someone who lives 15 minutes away from the National Microbial Laboratory, I hope not.

      BTW, I'm really surprised that this story didn't get more attention.

  2. Well... by ResidntGeek · · Score: 5, Funny

    It was not immediately clear why the 1957 pandemic strain, which killed between 1 million and 4 million people -- was in the proficiency test kits routinely sent to labs.

    You'd have to be pretty freaking proficient to kill it, I guess, so it's a good test.

    --
    ResidntGeek
  3. this is the way the world ends by Leontes · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This scares the living shit out of me. I really appreciate all the work that scientists do to protect, understand and appreciate deadly virii in the name of humankind, but for the love of god, people, don't be foolheardy with these biological agents. I think what I dread the most is some alien discovering this world a thousand years from now, a corpse planet, a slow hour long series of flashbacks and a slow fadeout to, "they were destroyed by their own hubris!" I mean, talk about cliche. If you find yourself in possession of a deadly virus, be extra careful and don't send it out to your grandmom by accident, just a tip.

    1. Re:this is the way the world ends by GreyWolf3000 · · Score: 3, Interesting
      The plural of 'virus' is not virii. I can't remember which declension virus is in, but the plural for virus is most likely 'viri' (if masculine), or 'vira' (if neuter). Some third declension nouns end in 'us' but I highly doubt virus is one of them (it would be 'vires' in that case, I believe). Knowing the the genetive singular would solve it all, but I don't know of any decent online latin dictionary.

      I seem to recall the proper latin plural being 'viri,' but honestly in English I think we should all just say 'viruses.'

      --
      Slashdot: Where people pretend to be twice as smart as they really are by behaving like children.
    2. Re:this is the way the world ends by Leontes · · Score: 2, Funny

      You are, of course, correct, and I shall no longer make such silly mistakii.

    3. Re:this is the way the world ends by PakProtector · · Score: 2, Informative

      I do speak Latin, and virvs, atleast in my dictionary, is indeclinable, like nil / nihil. Also, when the word is used in english, as a loanword, it is pluralised as viruses, not virii, which is just plain stupid, as for a latin word to end in double i it has to end in -ivs.

      --

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      man: no entry for woman in the manual.
      "Qua!?"

    4. Re:this is the way the world ends by Leontes · · Score: 2, Funny

      Since it is organic waste, and since until excreted it remains part of my digestive system, one could argue that since as digestion occurs, the extraction of nutrients is a biochemical function that it is indistinct from the organic life that houses that interaction, so therefore, shit, until completely expunged, is living. And since this story gave me a anxiety induced feeling (technically known as the willies), my sympathetic flight routine extended not only throughout my nervous system but also throughout the entire biochemical structure of the human body. Hence, the living shit, the organic excrement, being part of the terrified self.

  4. so a private firm made lots of it to send out by artifex2004 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    when they were asked to pick a strain themselves to test people with, and it took the WHO to tell them they screwed up and shouldn't have done it?

    How many private firms have stockpiles of old virus strains we no longer have immunity to? And are they really that stupid?

    1. Re:so a private firm made lots of it to send out by Short+Circuit · · Score: 2, Informative

      It would really help to RTFA this time, because, while this is a serious screwup, it's not what a lot of people are thinking after reading the poorly worded summary.

      In response to your misunderstanding, the sample was distributed in a kit intended for testing sample-identification equipment. Not for testing on people, or even for making vaccines.

      PLEASE, people, RTFA this time. The last thing we need is for people to jump to conclusions.

      /me larts "An anonymous reader"...

      --
      tasks(723) drafts(105) languages(484) examples(29106)
    2. Re:so a private firm made lots of it to send out by artifex2004 · · Score: 3, Insightful
      In response to your misunderstanding, the sample was distributed in a kit intended for testing sample-identification equipment. Not for testing on people, or even for making vaccines.


      I did read it... did you miss the following quote?

      The risk is relatively low that a lab worker will get sick, but a large number of labs got it and if someone does get infected, the risk of severe illness is high and this virus has shown to be fully transmissible," WHO's influenza chief, Klaus Stohr, told The Associated Press. (emphasis mine)


      He's not talking about the strain in general. He's talking about what was sent out in all those kits to all those labs. And about real people now, not back in the 50s. That indicates people could actually catch this from the test kits if mishandled, etc., does it not? It wasn't a dead virus sample. Now, remember that a lot of these kits were sent overseas. Some people overseas may have an interest in not destroying their kits, but attempting to culture from the live sample they have.

      It would really help to RTFA this time, because, while this is a serious screwup, it's not what a lot of people are thinking after reading the poorly worded summary.


      Please do. I don't know what you think I'm thinking, but I'll bet it wasn't what I really was thinking: they wouldn't be so hastily incinerating something if it was dead, would they?
  5. Good morning, Captain by AtariAmarok · · Score: 4, Funny

    Captain Trips? So soon? Go back to sleep. Your time is soon enough.

    --
    Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
  6. This can't be good. by Koiu+Lpoi · · Score: 4, Insightful

    but the rush to destroy them

    If it gets in the wild and outside of a controlled lab, all I can say is "Good Luck."

    1. Re:This can't be good. by jd · · Score: 2, Interesting
      The biggest problem is that they HAVE been in a rush to destroy them. That's a remarkably efficient way of ensuring accidents happen and that samples get missed.


      A bigger concern is that the shipments went out in November last year, including to countries in the Middle East. A sympathizer in the wrong place could easily have recognized it and produced more by now.


      However, the biggest concern of all is that this is a sample that was caught. Is it possible that other deadly viruses have been sent out, in other packs, in error and have NOT been spotted? This one got sent to so many, that it was bound to be seen sooner or later. But there must be other times when specific labs request random samples of stuff. In a situation like that, a mix-up might easily go undetected.


      If you've ever read "The Hot Zone", you'll remember a chapter describing how a lab using monkeys sent one that had died under unknown conditions, in a totally unprotected container. Turned out the monkey had died from an airborne strain of Ebola. The researchers were VERY VERY lucky it wasn't a strain humans could catch, or about 90% of America would be dead by now.


      This is one reason why people have to be bloody careful with medical samples of any kind. We've been lucky, so far, because the mistakes have - for many reasons - not broken out. Luck has a nasty habit of running out.


      Or maybe I watched Terry Nation's "Survivors" series too many times. (That was the theme in the series - a lab accident results in a virus wiping out most of humanity, with those few survivors basically stuck in a hybrid high-tech/stone-age environment.)

      --
      It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
  7. All a big misunderstanding.... by Ian_Bailey · · Score: 3, Informative

    It was not immediately clear why the 1957 pandemic strain, which killed between 1 million and 4 million people -- was in the proficiency test kits routinely sent to labs.

    Yeah, I'll bet the guy who leaked it is sorry, it was supposed to be the 1918 strain.

  8. Who to blame by drakethegreat · · Score: 2, Funny

    So this time South Park got it right huh... Blame Canada might be accurate.

  9. This is so not cool by Oriumpor · · Score: 2, Funny

    A week after I get over a nasty nasty flu, this article pops up. Thanks slashdot for fueling the little hypochondriac inside us all.

  10. Couple of issues raised.... by failedlogic · · Score: 4, Interesting

    1) Through there are obvious ethical questions, what legal responsibilities are their for scientits domestically and under international law to protect the public from releasing (intentionally or unintentionally) these types of strains.

    My hope is that the scientist(s) responsible for this accident, are at least, fined for this incident. I hope if there is gross incompetence, that they not work as a scientist in a medical facility ever again.

    2) If this is such a dangerous flu virus, and it hasn't been innoculated against since 1957 or 1960, why were the innoculations stopped?

    I think its similar to small pox, where unfortunately, it was supposed to be "destroyed". But like nuclear weapons, its a "Well, if you're keeping it, so are we." mentality.

    3) After seeing problems with SARS evolve internationnaly (particually where I live, in Canada) what measures are being taken to seclude and isolate potential travellers, who move about with flu-like symptoms?

    I raised this with gov't officials at Health Canada about two years ago during the SARS. They said the airplanes were throughly 'cleaned' after each flight. How? When? With what? They really couldn't give me details ... because they didn't have any. What about the U.S., Europe? The problem is international contamination of viruses now because almost any country is witin a 10 to 15 hour flight.

  11. All I have to say is... by Baloo+Ursidae · · Score: 2, Funny

    And the 2005 Ig Nobel Prize in the field of medicine goes to...

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    Help us build a better map!
  12. Alarmist and inaccurate story by hung_himself · · Score: 3, Insightful

    At first I thought it was an April fool's joke when I saw "National Microbial Laboratory Canada" which does not exist - "Health Canada National Microbiology Laboratory" does exist though. But, unfortunately, it's just another example of poor reporting and maybe some CYA politics.

    The article implies that because this is an old virus, people born after 1968, the last time it was in a vaccine, have no immunity to it. What she was probably told was that it was unlikely that anyone born after 1968 would be immune to it which is quite different. Influenza vaccines are (somewhat) effective because although the viruses mutate rapidly, they are related and exposure to a related virus can confer resistance. If the reporter had done a Google like I did http://www.hhs.gov/nvpo/pandemics/flu3.htm, she would have found that the same family of flu resurfaced in 1978 and a member of this family was included in vaccines after that.

    Finally, according to the article, this kit has been floating around for a year with that sample and most countries only require level 2 facilities to handle it. Scientists value their lives as much as the next guy - so it's apparent that noone thought much of the risk. Makes me wonder whether the viruses were even infective. The recommendation for the virus in the kit to be destroyed only came about when the Canadian lab found it in another sample - meaning someone got sloppy and everyone went into CYA mode. Anyway, it probably is a good idea not to have that virus in the kit, if only to avoid articles like this - which was probably the thinking at WHO, rather than this being a real risk.

  13. Lab Worker Comments by sdstowell · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I work in a hospital lab as a med tech. We were sent this sample for testing. We get blind samples every 6 months from CAP to check our methodology. We only test for type A and B but don't serotype the sample of virus. I have treated these samples as capable of transmitting disease. I must admit some of my peers are not quite as careful. I had seen the info on the news but didn't think we had received this test kit. I came in to work and asked if we had received a notice from CAP and was told yes. Scared the hell out me because of knowing my peers don't take the same precautions I do. I really don't think the general public have a clue what happens in a modern (well kinda modern) hospital laboratory. I have handled petri dishes with enough sterp bacteria to infect a small city or blood samples capable of infecting half the country with HIV. We handle samples that will kill you before you know has happened. In collage we proformed a little experiment, We took a common bowl flora E.Colli and in 10 days made it resistant to ever antibiotic but Cipro (just in case we needed to be treated for it). Docs are doing this experiment every day due to peps demanding the magic pill to cure all that is wrong with them. Just think about this ... It would only take one really pissed off person, a few petri dishes, very little knowledge, a little time, and the right opportunity to make the world a very nasty place to live.