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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."

11 of 74 comments (clear)

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

    "Oops."

  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.
  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 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."

  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. 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.

  9. 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.