Saudi Arabia, Israel, U.S. Have Missing Vials of Pandemic Flu

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http://legitgov.org/index.html#breaking_news

 

Saudi Arabia, Israel, U.S. Have Missing Vials of Pandemic Flu 16 April

2005 --Most of the samples of a deadly flu virus sent to laboratories

around the world by Meridian Bioscience have been destroyed, health

officials said yesterday. Bermuda, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile,

France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Lebanon, South Korea, Mexico,

Singapore and Taiwan confirmed that they had neutralized all their

samples, along with a newly identified U.S. military lab in Britain,

WHO said... Israel, Japan, Saudi Arabia and the United States were the

only countries still tracing samples, said Klaus Stohr of the World

Health Organization.

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57529-2005Apr15.html

 

Most Samples Of Flu Strain Are Destroyed

Action Eases Fears of Pandemic

 

By Rob Stein

Washington Post Staff Writer

Saturday, April 16, 2005; Page A03

 

Most of the samples of a dangerous flu virus sent to laboratories

around the world have been destroyed, easing concerns that the

specimens might trigger a deadly pandemic, health officials said

yesterday.

 

At least 15 of the 19 countries that received the virus confirmed that

they had eliminated all samples, and officials were hopeful the

remainder would be accounted for soon.

 

" Based on this progress, we think the risk to human health from the

distribution of these samples has been sharply decreased, " said Klaus

Stohr of the World Health Organization. " With the ongoing destruction,

we are optimistic. "

 

The problem occurred when Meridian Bioscience Inc. outside Cincinnati

mailed the virus to more than 4,000 laboratories, mostly in the United

States, as part of kits designed to certify the labs' performance. The

company apparently believed the virus was safe.

 

The same virus caused the 1957-58 Asian pandemic, which killed 1

million to 4 million people, including about 70,000 in the United

States. Because the virus has not circulated since 1968, anyone born

after that time has little or no immunity, raising fears that a

laboratory worker might become infected and spread it, triggering

another deadly pandemic.

 

Canadian officials discovered the problem accidentally during routine

testing and alerted WHO and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention on April 8, setting off an urgent campaign to locate and

destroy the samples.

 

Bermuda, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Hong Kong,

Italy, Lebanon, South Korea, Mexico, Singapore and Taiwan confirmed

that they had neutralized all their samples, along with a newly

identified U.S. military lab in Britain, WHO said. Officials also

determined that samples sent to labs in Lebanon, Chile and Mexico that

never arrived had either been secured or already destroyed.

 

Israel, Japan, Saudi Arabia and the United States were the only

countries still tracing samples, Stohr said.

 

The College of American Pathologists, which requested most of the kits

and is coordinating their destruction, said written confirmation had

been received for 77 percent of all samples, and telephone

conversations with recipients of the remaining 23 percent indicated

most of those samples had been destroyed as well. The organization set

up a 24-hour hotline that will be open over the weekend in the hope of

confirming destruction of the remainder as quickly as possible, a

spokesman said.

 

Ninety percent of samples shipped at the request of other

organizations had also been destroyed, WHO said.

 

Health officials continued to monitor anyone who may have come in

contact with the virus for signs of illness, but no cases were reported.

 

In response to the problem, the CDC announced this week that the

agency would speed up plans to require tighter security for the

handling of dangerous strains of flu virus. WHO is also drafting new

procedures for handling the virus, Stohr said.

 

But officials remained concerned that there is no comprehensive

inventory of exactly how many facilities had the virus and how it was

being stored.