CDC may ship killer virus to U.S. labs

November 10, 2005

CDC may ship killer virus to U.S. labsMillions around the world died from Spanish flu in 1918http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9981047/The Associated PressUpdated: 7:11 p.m. ET Nov. 9, 2005ATLANTA - Federal scientists say they will consider requests to ship therecently recreated 1918 killer flu virus to select U.S. research labs.There are 300 non-government research labs registered to work with deadlygerms like the Spanish flu, which killed millions of people worldwide. TheCenters for Disease Control and Prevention will consider requests forsamples from those labs “on a case-by-case basis,” CDC spokesman Von Roebucksaid Wednesday.Dangerous biological agents are routinely shipped through commercialcarriers like FedEx or DHL, following government packaging, safety andsecurity guidelines.Last month, U.S. scientists announced they had created — from scratch — the1918 virus. It was the first time an infectious agent behind a historicglobal epidemic had ever been reconstructed.Researchers said they believed it would help them develop defenses againstthe threat of a future pandemic evolving from bird flu, which was found tohave similar characteristics as the 1918 virus.About 10 vials of virus were created, each containing about 10 millioninfectious virus particles. CDC officials said at the time the particleswould be stored at a CDC facility in Atlanta, and that there were no plansto send samples off campus.But that statement did not mean there was a policy against sending sampleselsewhere, Roebuck said.The agency’s decision to consider shipping the virus outside Atlanta wasfirst reported in the latest issue of the journal Nature. Some critics ofthe recreation of the virus were not pleased to learn of plans to ship thegerm.“Obviously, that contradicts what most people were led to believe when theresults of the 1918 experiments were published,” said Edward Hammond,director of the Sunshine Project, an Austin, Texas-based organization thatadvocates more control of biological weapons and biotechnology.Information to be placed on public databaseIn addition to creating the virus, the scientists said they would place thegene-sequencing information from the new research in GenBank, a publicdatabase operated by the National Institutes of Health.GenBank will allow some research groups to build their own virus, ratherthan seek samples of what the CDC had created.“But that would be a lot of work. Wasted, duplicative work, if they (theCDC) have already made it,” said Dr. Diane Griffin, chair of molecularmicrobiology and immunology at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg Schoolof Public Health.It’s impractical to expect every influenza researcher who could learn fromthe 1918 virus to travel to Atlanta, said Michael Osterholm of theUniversity of Minnesota School of Public Health.“There’s very limited lab space there,” said Osterholm, director ofMinnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy.The CDC currently has no pending requests for the virus, Roebuck said. It’sunlikely many requests would come in right away, Osterholm noted.The government requires researchers who work with such agents to use highlysecure labs that meet strict training and equipment requirements. About 300labs are registered for handling such agents, and all are located in theUnited States, Roebuck said.“This (virus) is not going to go willy nilly to anyone who wants it,” hesaid.© 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not bepublished, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.© 2005 MSNBC.comURL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9981047/