(source)Lack of Marburg Virus Survivors Creates Civil Unrest in Angola

In una delle ultime sapide puntate, si leggeva:

By 1996, Dr. Leonard Horowitz confirmed in his book Emerging Viruses that both AIDS and the Marburg-Ebola complex were man-made monstrosities hatched out of America's biowarfare labs.

Tempo dopo:

Marburg Fatality Rate in Angola At 100%?

La saga continua:

The case fatality rate for Marburg in Angola is above 99.4%. There is at most 1 survivor out of 181 outcomes. Thus, hospitalization offers little hope for survival, which has led to mistrust by local residents. Mobile surveillance operations in Uige have ceased because of damage to vehicles and threats of violence. It is unclear if health care workers have been killed because of the unrest, but clearly contact tracing has been limited in the Uige, which is the epicenter of the outbreak. Therefore management by contact tracing and quarantine will be difficult. The lack of survivors has also led to relatives hiding sick patients because no one has come out of the hospital alive. However, care by untrained and unprotected relatives leads to further transmission. This transmission has now reached Luanda, Angola's capital.

The 3 million residents of Luanda will get increasingly concerned as the virus spreads in Luanda and the number dead increase. The lack of any survivors creates more suspicion about the motives of health care workers and those trying to monitor and quarantine contacts of infected patients.

Passa il tempo...

Marburg Virus Spreads to Zaire

The above detail demonstrates why the Marburg outbreak will not be quickly contained. The outbreak originated in Uige, where there are the most cases and the largest number being monitored. However, the virus has radiated out from Uige, and there is little monitoring in the outlying regions. Thus, the monitoring is chasing the virus, which continues to transmit ahead of the monitoring. Warnings last week indicated Uige was the Marburg epicenter, and all cases originated in Uige. This week warnings have gone out to countries adjacent to Angola (Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Namibia, and Zambia), warning that Angola is the epicenter. There are already reports of suspect cases in South Africa, including one death. The above update indicates Marbug has now spread to Zaire. WHO just announced Kwanza-sul yesterday, although the above report indicates there have been deaths there since March 20, and the spread to Kwanza-sul was reported earlier. Provinces previously reported, but not listed above include Cabinda, Kwanza-Norte, and Malange. The update on Luanda is most alarming because there is a population of 4 million and an international airport.

E' tempo di problemi globali:

Angola Marburg outbreak "wake up call" to world

LUANDA, April 8 (Reuters) - Angola's lethal Marburg virus outbreak, one of several animal-borne diseases to jump to humans, should be a "wake up call" to the world to invest more in research, a senior U.N. official said on Friday. Anarfi Asamoa-Baah, the World Health Organisation (WHO) assistant director general for infectious diseases, told Reuters Marburg was one of more than 30 viruses to jump inexplicably from animals to humans. "The last 30 years we have seen at least 30 new diseases and most of those have been animal diseases that have jumped into human beings. They include HIV, SARS, BSE," he said in an interview in Angola's capital Luanda. "We don't really know how they jump," he added.

Sarà stata la fatina buona del frigo!

Ignorance fuels killer Marburg outbreak in Angola

Fear and ignorance are fuelling the world’s deadliest outbreak of Marburg fever in Angola, where locals are too suspicious of medics in "astronaut" suits to let them take away infected loved ones, aid workers said today. Terrified residents stoned World Health Organisation (WHO) workers’ vehicles late last week, putting a brief halt to their operations to contain the disease in Uige province, northeast of Angola’s capital Luanda.

"We no longer have people coming to the isolation ward, people are hiding their patients at home because they’re scared. That means the virus keeps on spreading in the community," Monica Castellarnau, emergency coordinator for Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in Uige, told Reuters by phone from Uige.

The outbreak has killed 192 of the 213 known cases. There is no cure for the disease which is related to Ebola.

"We’ve become scapegoats. That’s how people express their fear, grief and anger at the situation. They see we’ve got an isolation ward with very restricted access -- they think we’re doing funny things," Castellarnau said.

"People have not been given sufficient information to understand the measures that are necessary to stop the virus... It’s crucial people understand the public health risk of keeping sick people at home. Only then can we start to control the spread of the virus," she said.

Marburg, a rare hemorrhagic fever, is spread through contact with bodily fluids including blood and saliva. Symptoms include headaches, internal bleeding, nausea, vomiting and bloody diarrhoea.

MSF has opened the city’s only isolation ward in a cordoned-off section of the general hospital. But Castellarnau said the hospital should be closed to all non-Marburg cases to avoid it becoming a source of infection.

"We have strongly recommended that the hospital be closed temporarily and this is because the risk of infection at the hospital is unacceptably high," she said. Health workers have said basic hygiene rules are still not fully observed in hospitals. Emergency measures to deal with the outbreak have stretched to the limit Angola’s healthcare facilities which have been left in tatters after decades of civil war. But many locals have not welcomed the strange-looking healthcare workers who have descended on Uige city dressed in full protective clothing.

Killer virus hits Angolan rituals

Angolans are being urged to change their traditional rituals for burying loved ones in a bid by health workers to stamp out the deadly Marburg virus. At least 215 people - mainly in the northern province of Uige - have died from the Ebola-like bug since October. Angolans traditionally embrace and kiss their dead in a final farewell - but just touching an infected corpse can lead to infection, say experts.
[...]
The UN has urged neighbouring countries to adopt screening measures against travellers anyone visiting from Angola.

Andiamo a cercare cosa diceva la WHO nel lontano 2004.

Flu pandemic inevitable, plans needed urgently: WHO

BEJIJING, Nov. 29 (Xinhuanet) -- WHO calls for every country in the world to make plans to deal with an inevitable influenza pandemic that is likely to be triggered by the bird flu virus that hit Asia this year.

Inevitable?

The World Health Organization calls for every country in the world to make plans to deal with an inevitable influenza pandemic that is likely to be triggered by the bird flu virus that hit Asia this year.

Shigeru Omi, regional director for the Western Region of the WHO, made the comment at a news conference of 13 Asian health ministers on Friday. He said influenza pandemics occur on a regular cycle, with one appearing every 20 to 30 years and no country will be spared. While commenting on the H5N1 avian flu virus, which has defied efforts to eradicate it in several Asian countries, including Thailand, Omi urges the intensifying of international efforts to avoid pandemics.

Qualcuno a suo tempo commentò sull'H5N1 e relativo vaccino:

Unknown to most people, the flu vaccine situation deteriorated rapidly in the spring of 2004, but wasn’t covered by the media. Ordinary people watching the situation were left with the impression that everything was under control, and all was well. Wrong. There’s a manufacturing hold-up. The issues are murky and legal, and the spin doctors are rewriting the storyline almost daily.

Avanti:

The Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 and 1919 killed upwards of 20 million people. WHO experts say the next could infect up to 30 percent of the world's more than 6 billion people and kill up to 7 million. The Asian health ministers, from China and 12 other Asian countries, promised they would make plans for a pandemic and cooperate to stave it off. In a joint statement at the end of the two-day meeting, they pledged to work together to develop vaccines, diagnostic tests for humans and conduct research urgently needed to provide more information on the virus.

Il gufo globale insiste:

WHO warns of dire flu pandemic

BANGKOK, Thailand -- The World Health Organization has issued a dramatic warning that bird flu will trigger an international pandemic that could kill up to seven million people. The influenza pandemic could occur anywhere from next week to the coming years, WHO said. "There is no doubt there will be another pandemic," Klaus Stohr of the WHO Global Influenza Program said on the sidelines of a regional bird flu meeting in Bangkok, Thailand.

"Even with the best case scenario, the most optimistic scenario, the pandemic will cause a public health emergency with estimates which will put the number of deaths in the range of two and seven million," he said. "The number of people affected will go beyond billions because between 25 percent and 30 percent will fall ill." Pandemics occur when a completely new flu strain emerges for which humans have no immunity.

With a human vaccine to the bird flu virus not expected until March 2005 at the earliest, urgency is being placed on containment. "The countries that have the weakest health systems are in need of most support and clearly, usually it's together the poorest countries who have the least resources to invest in health," Dr. Bjorn Melgaard, head of WHO's Southeast Asia office, said. The dire flu warning came ahead of a two-day meeting of regional health ministers in Bangkok, looking at how to pool efforts to combat a future outbreak.

It also comes just a few months after the first probable instance of human-to-human transmission of the bird-flu virus emerged. The virus killed 32 people in Thailand and Vietnam earlier this year and led to the slaughter of millions of poultry birds across the region. Pandemics usually occur every 20 to 30 years when the genetic makeup of a flu strain changes so dramatically that people have little or no immunity built up from previous flu bouts.

"During the last 36 years, there has been no pandemic, and there is a conclusion now that we are closer to the next pandemic than we have ever been before," Stohr told reporters. "There is no reason to believe that we are going to be spared." Stohr said if bird flu triggers the next pandemic, the virus would likely originate in Asia. "An influenza pandemic will spare nobody. Every country will be affected," he said.

Ma è chiaro: è un problema globale, occorrerà una soluzione globale!

There have been three pandemics in the 20th century, all spread worldwide within a year of being detected. The worst was the Spanish flu in 1918-19, when as many as 50 million people worldwide are thought to have died, nearly half of them young, healthy adults. The Asian flu pandemic of 1957 claimed nearly 70,000 lives in the United States and one million worldwide after spreading from China. In 1968, the Hong Kong flu pandemic is also said to have killed around one million. Both pandemics were believed to be mutations of pig viruses.

Prendiamo nota.

It is important that countries act quickly to guard against a possible pandemic and take stock of their inventories of antivirals, Stohr said. Scientists are busy working on vaccines for bird flu and other viruses. Two U.S. companies have said they plan to test experimental bird flu vaccines in January. Thai health officials said Wednesday they expected that a vaccine to protect humans from bird flu would be ready by 2007, The Associated Press reports . Health ministers and senior officials from 10 Southeast Asian countries, along with China, Japan and South Korea, are among the more than 100 people attending this week's meeting to develop strategies against flu and other infectious diseases.

Nel lontano 2003:

Microbiology: The Most Dangerous Area of Inquiry in the World

In case you haven't noticed, the world's top microbiologists are dying.

Un fatto curioso.

The MURDER of David Kelly in Britain brings the total of dead experts in microbiology to 13. (Update 1/15/04: It's 14 now. See below.) To call Kelly's death a suicide is complete folly. See my entry on Israel's Kidon.

Kidon is the Mossad's elite political assassination team that specializes in suicides. While I'm not saying that Kidon did or did not murder Kelly, Kidon is known to have been in Britain. The story was that they were executing individuals associated with Muslim extremism.

Leland Rickman of University of California, San Diego was number twelve. The previous eleven deaths are detailed here. I would also add SAIC analyst Christopher Legallo and potentially MD/microbiologist/lawyer Jeffrey Paris Wall and FBI analyst Linda Franklin to the list.

Why are these people dying? Your guess is as good as mine:

Kelly was the Ministry of Defence's chief scientific officer and senior adviser to the proliferation and arms control secretariat, and to the Foreign Office's non-proliferation department. The senior adviser on biological weapons to the UN biological weapons inspections teams (Unscom) from 1994 to 1999, he was also, in the opinion of his peers, pre-eminent in this field, not only in this country, but in the world.

Io lo so: muoiono per colpa della criminalità nelle grandi metropoli, rapinato sotto casa dal rapinatore che li voleva rapinare.

WHO INSERTED THE MUTATED HUMAN INFLUENZA VIRUS IN A PIG IN SOUTH KOREA?

Che domande fai?

Who inserted a mutated version of the human influenza virus in a pig [preso nota?] in South Korea? That’s what a leading biologist wants to know. Health authorities claim that animal viruses from pigs and poultry are jumping to humans and infecting them, causing people some to die. But it appears somebody is helping the process along.

La fatina del frigo!

Nature Magazine, in its February 24 issue, reported that biologist Henry Niman, who works for a biotechnology company, was examining flu viruses gene sequences that were placed in GenBank, the public database for genetic sequence information. Niman found a strain of human flu virus that was created in 1940 in a London lab by scientists who were experimenting with the virus that caused the global flu pandemic of 1918. The flu sequence, obtained from a pig virus, had been placed in GenBank by researchers at Chungnam National University in Daejon, South Korea. Neither the World Health Organization (WHO) or the South Korean government have commented on Niman’s claim. Niman says “the incident raises worrying questions about how the human flu genes got into a virus in a pig.” While laboratory accidents may be responsible, Niman wonders if this is evidence of “bioterrorism” at work?

Forse è colpa di Bin Laden! Ma le sorprese globali sono appena cominciate:

Influenza Intrigue

Strange events surround the monitoring of influenza viruses throughout the world. The public keeps hearing of an impending flu pandemic that could sweep the world and kill millions. Most on the minds of infectious disease experts is the dreaded H5 N1 strain of influenza virus which was involved in the 1918 Spanish flu outbreak that killed millions worldwide. Will H5 N1 reappear? Infectious disease experts say it is only a matter of time before H5N1 encircles the globe with potentially lethal ferocity.

Potentially deadly influenza viruses exist harmlessly in birds. But, occasionally, these viruses jump from birds to pigs. In 1918 it is believed a variety of swine flu jumped from pigs to humans. There, it mutated into an entirely new strain that humans had little immunity towards.

At this moment in time H5N1 appears to be confined to birds in Asia, but a few cases of H5N1 have jumped from animals to humans , resulting in the death of less than 100 people. So far, human transmission doesn’t appear to be strong. Will the H5N1/2005 version fizzle out as did the SARS virus that only killed 812 people worldwide?

Maybe H5N1 is for real this time. The fact that an entire family of five was infected with H5N1 in Vietnam, as reported in late March, 2005, is cause for concern. Is the H5N1 flu virus naturally mutating into a more virulent and transmissible strain? Or is someone helping the process along?

Anche la destra cristiana e bigotta tempo fa aveva il sospetto.

Who put the mutated human flu virus in a pig in South Korea?

Saddam?

Nature Magazine, in its February 24 issue, reported that Henry Niman, a biologist with Recombinomics [quelli del primo link], last November was examining flu virus gene sequences that were placed in GenBank, a public database in New Mexico run by the World Health Organization. Niman found a strain of human flu virus that was created in 1940 in a London lab by scientists who were experimenting with the virus that had caused the flu pandemic of 1918. The problem is that this mutated human flu virus was placed in GenBank by researchers at Chungnam National University Daejon, South Korea. It had been obtained from a pig! This flu gene sequence doesn’t exist in nature. It had to be artificially implanted into pigs.

The World Health Organization has characterized the flu gene sequences as a laboratory error, but the Korean scientist who posted them insists they are real.

Il caso e la coincidenza!

The genetic sequence of the virus, called WSN/33, "poses a grave danger to human health," says Henry Niman in Science Magazine. [Science, March 4, 2005, Volume 307, p. 1392] You’ve now got the two most prestigious scientific journals commenting on this intrigue. As Martin Enserink of Science Magazine asked: "Is this evidence of an embarrassing and mistaken release from a laboratory, or a ‘smoking gun’ from a secret biowarfare experiment?" Five months after the gene sequences for the WSN/33 virus was posted on the GenBank database, its existence, reported in many pigs on many farms in Korea, goes unexplained.

A laboratory mistake, or bioterrorism?

If it is an inadvertent release from a laboratory, why isn’t there swift action by the World Health Organization to stop its spread?

Forse stanno meditando sulla Age of Reason?

To add to the intrigue, North Korea reports on March 27, 2005 that it has experienced its first outbreak of the deadly bird flu virus. [BBC News March 27, 2005] Are South Korean labs attempting to sabotage the North Korean food supply?

Henry Niman says there is nothing remotely similar to the WSN/33 flu virus that has circulated in recent decades and "most of the global population would have little or no immunity to the virus." Laurie Garrett, author of The Coming Plague and Betrayal of Trust, who resigned from her post as a newspaper reporter to report directly on bioterrorism and impending flu pandemics to the Council on Foreign Relations, quotes an Internet journal as saying "these sequences could represent a military experiment that resulted in an unplanned release. Moreover, at this point, bioterrorism cannot be ruled out." [Laurie Garrett, Feb. 23, 2005, Council Foreign Relations]

Why the propaganda?

But is bioterrorism being used as a scapegoat for the release of the mutated human flu virus into a pig in South Korea? At the very same time these events are unfolding, the news media is releasing reports that "the threat of a biological terrorist strike by al Qaeda is very real." [Source: Interpol, reported by CNN.com Feb. 24, 2005] Why the propaganda that suggests al Qaeda could spread killer viruses? Killer viruses would sweep the globe and kill off those with the weakest immunity and poorest nutrition. The Arab world would likely suffer more deaths than developed nations from such a flu outbreak.

The news media continue to quote misleadingly high mortality rates from the bird flu, but the reported cases are in undeveloped countries where human immunity is low. The SARS virus was barely noted as a public health problem in the US where, due to better nutrition and public hygiene, immunity is relatively high.

Preparation

Julie Gerberding, Centers for Disease Control chief, says her agency is getting ready for a possible pandemic next year. [Associated Press, Feb. 22, 2005] Great Britain is laying plans to shut down schools and offices if the bird flu arrives and has ordered millions of antiviral drugs, such as Tamiflu (a drug developed by Gilead Sciences, formerly headed by Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense). [The Observer, March 27, 2005] The British are also increasing emergency mortuary space for dead bodies. [The Independent, March 27, 2005] President Bush has issued a directive that would allow authorities to detain or isolate international airline passengers suspected of having avian flu. [Reuters April 1, 2005]

Occorre la legge marziale per fermare il problema globale!

The CDC has launched a human trial for an H5N1 vaccine, but a report in New Scientist says these trials are likely to be a waste of money. The pandemic is anticipated to begin before stocks of H5N1 vaccine could be sufficiently boosted. [New Scientist March 23, 2005]

Strano! Mi ricorda vagamente qualcosa:

Flu Vaccine Technology: Who’s Blocking its Use?

More than three groups own the Intellectual Property rights for reverse genetic engineering. One of the groups is a company called Medimmune. Information about the other IP owners is not available. Reverse genetics technology was first developed in the 1980’s; ownership likely changed hands since. This is the kind of technology Big Pharma would want to control. If a vaccine that’s developed using reverse genetics goes into commercial production, then manufacturers need to negotiate royalties with all the IP patent holders. MedImmune will waive royalties on its intellectual property for pandemic flu vaccines that are offered free to the public, but the other IP patent holders remain invisible; none have made similar promises.

Non l'avrei mai sospettato!

Will the vaccine work? The National Institutes of Health recently published a report showing efforts over three decades to inoculate US citizens against the flu have not saved lives. [Associated Press, Feb. 14, 2005; Archives Internal Medicine 165: 265, 2005] How would a new flu vaccine be expected to work any better? The new H5N1 vaccine is being tested in adults age 18 to 64 years of age, who are not high-risk populations. The elderly and the very young are most at risk for viral infection.

The Infectious Diseases Society of America is calling for antiviral drugs for at least 50 percent of the population. [Science Daily April 1, 2005] But Tamiflu, a widely promoted antiviral drug, is only marginally helpful in reducing the spread of a flu virus. [Prescrire International 12: 85–88, 2003] Amantadine (Symmetrel), another drug that may be stockpiled in anticipation of a flu epidemic, produces so many side effects it cannot be safely given to public safety officers, the military or medical personnel. Amantadine also induces a change in the flu virus so that it becomes resistant to the drug.

What about boosting immunity?

L'attento lettore ricorderà temi ricorrenti:

Should a pandemic ensue, or even the false threat of a pandemic, martial law could be declared and forced vaccination or quarantine be ordered. Even if vaccines or medicines are in stock, it is unlikely that they could be administered in a timely manner for so many millions of people. Public health authorities are over-reliant upon vaccines and drugs, while shunning nutrients that would elevate natural immunity.

A new scientific discovery could prevent or reduce mortality from the flu. Nutritional status not only affects a person’s response to a virus, but also the genetic makeup of the viral genome. [Trends Microbiology 12: 417–23, 2004] Mice that are deficient in the trace mineral selenium are more susceptible to infection by viruses, including the influenza virus. Viruses mutate in selenium-deficient animals and become virulent. Selenium prevents the mutations that increase tissue damage during infection. [J American College Nutrition 20: 384–88S, 2001; FASEB Journal 15: 1846-48, 2001; Journal Nutrition 133: 1463–67S, 2003]

Oddly, a United Nations/World Health Organization affiliated body known as CODEX is limiting the amount of nutrients, like immune-boosting selenium, zinc, vitamin C and vitamin E, in dietary supplements this summer. The timing seems misplaced. Some observers predict a black market in vitamin and mineral supplements soon.

Ma quali vitamine, l'allegra banda globale pensa in grande, non in pillole!

Labs Urged to Destroy Pandemic Flu Strain

(04-12) 15:47 PDT LONDON, United Kingdom (AP) -- Thousands of scientists were scrambling Tuesday at the urging of global health authorities to destroy vials of a pandemic flu strain sent to labs in 18 countries as part of routine testing.

Eh?

The rush, urged by the World Health Organization, was sparked by a slim, but real, risk that the samples, could spark a global flu epidemic. The vials of virus sent by a U.S. company went to nearly 5,000 labs, mostly in the United States, officials said.

Siete completamente imbecilli?

"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.

Tradotto: nel dubbio, meglio andare sul sicuro.

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.

Chissà perché?

It was a decision that Stohr described as "unwise," and "unfortunate."

Sarà una coincidenza.

That particular bug was "an epidemic virus for many years," Stohr said from the U.N. health agency's headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. "The risk is low but things can go wrong as long as these samples are out there and there are some still out there." The 1957 strain has not been included in the flu vaccine since 1968, and anyone born after that date has no immunity to it.

Dr. Nancy Cox, chief of the influenza branch at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, said her agency was notified of the situation Friday morning. She also said officials strongly doubt someone deliberately planted the dangerous germ or that this was an act of bioterrorism.

"It wouldn't be a smart way to start a pandemic to send it to laboratories because we have people well trained in biocontainment," she said.
[...]
Almost 99 percent of the labs that got the test kits are in the United States, Stohr said. Fourteen were in Canada and 61 samples went to labs in 16 other countries in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and South America, according to the WHO.

Alla cortese attenzione del Dott. Bin Laden?

Some of the labs outside the United States have already destroyed their samples, he said, and WHO is hoping that the rest of the vials will be destroyed by Friday. The test kits are used for internal quality control checks to demonstrate that a lab is able to correctly identify viruses or as a way for labs to get certified by the College of American Pathologists.

The kits involve blind samples. The lab then has to correctly identify the pathogen in the vial in order to pass the test. Usually, the influenza virus included in these kits is one that is currently circulating, or at least one that has recently been in circulation.

On March 26, National Microbial Laboratory Canada detected the 1957 pandemic strain in a sample not connected with the test kit. After informing WHO and the CDC of the strange finding, the lab investigated. It informed the U.N. health agency on Friday that it had traced the virus to the test kit.

The WHO then notified the health authorities in all countries that received the kits and recommended that all the samples be destroyed immediately. That same day, the College of American Pathologists faxed the labs asking them to immediately incinerate the samples and to confirm in writing that the operation had been completed.

Twenty-Nine Oregon Labs Get H2N2 Virus Sample

Apr. 14 (AP) — Twenty-nine Oregon laboratories got samples of the H2N2 influenza virus, which were mistakenly sent out around the country as part of a testing process to measure researchers' proficiency in detecting various strains of influenza. The H2N2 virus has not been in circulation since 1968, and current flu vaccines do not protect against it, which means many people have no immunity against it.
[...]
Skeels said the risk of exposure to a laboratory worker is small, and the risk to the general public is even smaller.

Perché in caso contrario lo andrebbero a dire in televisione, per fare un casino come in Angola?

Labs race to destroy deadly virus

Health experts have begun to destroy samples of a potentially lethal flu strain sent to laboratories around the world by a US testing organisation.

Allora non si esporta solo democrazia!

The samples are of Asian flu, which killed between one and four million people in 1957 but disappeared by 1968. Testing kits containing the virus were sent to more than 3,700 laboratories in 18 countries from Brazil to Lebanon.

Guarda! Ci sono le WMD in Libano, andiamo subito a cercarle!

The World Health Organization said the virus could "easily cause an influenza epidemic" if not handled properly.

Prima non c'erano rischi, ora sì, domani chissà.

Canada, Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore have all destroyed their samples, the WHO said, and Germany said it had disposed of its virus as well. Taiwan was said to be moving "very, very fast" to destroy the samples it had received, and Japan said its health ministry had ordered it destroyed in the nine labs that had it. The WHO was unable to confirm how much had been destroyed in US labs, which received the vast majority of the samples.

The full list of countries and areas where laboratories received the virus is: Bermuda, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and the US.

Per la serie non ci sono rischi:

Because the virus has not been in circulation since 1968, people born after that do not have antibodies against it - and current vaccines do not guard against it. "If this virus were to infect one person, it would spread very rapidly," Klaus Stohr of the WHO told the BBC.

The College of American Pathologists sent out kits between October 2004 and February of this year. On 8 April, the US government asked the body to write to the laboratories affected - of which 61 are outside the US and Canada - telling them to destroy the samples.

Given the concerns that the virus could be used in bio-terrorism, letters were sent to the laboratories before the mistake was made public.

Dr Stohr said the College of American Pathologists had not violated US regulations, which are now being revised.

Casualmente.

The virus - technically known as H2N2 - was classified as Biological Safety Level 2, meaning that it was not considered particularly dangerous.

Peccato che:

But the US government agency responsible for classifying viruses, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, says it was in the process of deciding whether to change the strain's classification when it found out that it had been widely circulated.

The WHO says there is no guarantee that every sample of the virus can be traced and destroyed because some of the laboratories may have sent derivatives of the sample elsewhere.

But there have been no reports of anyone becoming ill from handling the virus, which the WHO called reassuring. "The risk is considered to be low... but as long as this is out, it is possible laboratory technicians can become infected," Dr Stohr said.

Sembra il gioco delle tre carte: high, low e la fatina buona del frigo col formaggino.

Laboratories use the kits to show they can correctly identify different strains of a virus.

They normally include strains in current or recent circulation. It is hoped the laboratories will have destroyed the vials by the end of the week.

Avanti!

Pandemic-causing 'Asian flu' accidentally released

The virus that caused the 1957 “Asian flu” pandemic has been accidentally released by a lab in the US, and sent all over the world in test kits which scientists are now scrambling to destroy. There are fears the virus could escape the labs, as the mistake was discovered after the virus escaped from a kit at a high-containment lab in Canada. Such an escape could spread worldwide, as demonstrated in Russia in the 1970s.

The flu testing kits were sent to some 3700 labs between October 2004 and February 2005 by the College of American Pathologists (CAP), a professional body which helps pathology laboratories improve their accuracy, by sending them unidentified samples of various germs to identify.

The CAP kits - prepared by private contractor Meridian Bioscience in Cincinnati, US - were to contain a particular strain of influenza A - the viral family that causes most flu worldwide. But instead of choosing a strain from the hundreds of recently circulating influenza A viruses, the firm chose the 1957 pandemic strain.

This is a problem because of the way pandemic flu strains edge each other out of circulation. The most lethal flu pandemic on record, in 1918, was caused by an influenza A of the H1 type, named for the haemagglutinin, a surface protein, it carries. After 1918, H1 flu evolved into an “ordinary” flu, and continued to circulate.
[...]
A similar event happened in 1977, with the sudden reappearance of an H1 flu identical to one that had been isolated in 1950. It is believed that the virus escaped from a faulty batch of live flu vaccine prepared in Russia. But fortunately that strain had evolved into a much tamer creature than its 1918 predecessor. Unfortunately, the 1957 H2 virus is the most lethal variant of its kind.

Ma che sfortuna!

A few of the CAP kits were sent to labs in Asia, the Middle East and South America, as well as Europe and North America. The kits’ originators had to know what they contained, in order to evaluate the test results. However, when Canada’s National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg identified the strain on 26 March, it alerted the US Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization. Worryingly, it initially found the potentially deadly virus in a sample unrelated to the test kit - meaning it had already escaped within the lab.

Test kits for flu are not handled at a high level of biological containment as it is generally assumed they do not carry unusually dangerous viruses. But its escape in the Winnipeg lab is worrying, as the lab contains facilities with the highest level of containment and its staff is expected to maintain high levels of lab hygiene. Its most probable route of escape into the outside world would be if a lab worker catches the Asian flu, then passes it on.

But there has been no sign of the virus infecting humans yet, says Klaus Stöhr, chief flu scientist at the World Health Organization in Geneva. But as the usual northern flu season is just ending it is not clear if any cases would have been noticed.

“If this incident doesn't cause a major reassessment of the safety of flu research, a lab-sponsored pandemic may well be the only thing that induces sobriety,” comments Ed Hammond of the Sunshine Project, a biosafety pressure group.

Continua:

Labs scramble to purge virus

The samples, part of a package of pathogens sent to laboratories to test their ability to identify them, were last seen in nature in the United States in 1968, Gerberding said. Anyone born since then would presumably have no immunity to the virus, she said.

Mi raccomando, conservateli con cura.

Authorities are still trying to determine how many laboratories got the samples of the virus, called Influenza A H2N2.

[...]
In addition, the CDC recommended that laboratories that have received the virus samples use safety level 3 precautions in handling them. Current recommendations require only that they be handled under less-stringent safety level 2 precautions.

The World Health Organization has contacted the ministries of health of the other 17 countries "to be sure that similar processes are in place" in all labs affected. How the virus wound up being included in a package of pathogens sent around the world was not clear, but Gerberding said health authorities would work to ensure such a lapse did not recur.

Organizations responsible for testing and accrediting laboratories' quality routinely send out panels of unknown organisms to determine if the laboratory can accurately identify them. In this case, the College of American Pathologists contracted with Meridian Bioscience Inc., of Cincinnati, Ohio, to create the panel, Gerberding said. "It is almost impossible to believe they didn't know they were dealing with an H2N2," she added.

"It was probably a situation where the advantages of using a strain that grows well and can be readily manipulated in the lab were the driving force without even considering that ... it could potentially cause a hazard to not only the workers in the laboratory, but to the people in the community."

Gerberding said she did not know who made that decision. A company spokesman did not immediately return a call seeking comment. Most of the samples have been destroyed, she said.

Evviva!

It was not until March 26 that a laboratory in Canada discovered the presence of the virus and alerted Canadian health officials, who in turn notified the World Health Organization and CDC, Gerberding said.

Da Ottobre 2004 a Marzo 2005 è un tempo accettabile per maneggiare l'H2 come se fosse una scatola di pidocchi.

Five days later, the lab was advised "to undertake a full stem-to-stern assessment" and, on April 8, the lab determined that the panels were the source, Gerberding said.

The threat had gone unnoticed for more than six months because the labs that received the panels would have characterized the virus only as an A or B strain and would not necessarily have characterized it further, she said.

All'anima del test.

The laboratories have been asked to report back to the college when the specimens have been destroyed, a process "that will take some time," Gerberding said.

Dovete fare un processo con giuria al virus?

Dr. Jared Schwartz, a spokesman for the College of American Pathologists, which distributed the virus, acknowledged its distribution was a mistake. He said records indicate the vendor knew it was sending a flu virus but apparently did not realize it was the deadly strain.

Siamo in ottime mani.

"This is the first time, thank God, that we have had, in any of our proficiency testing, issues focused on as a potential problem," he said. "It's regrettable, and a lot of communication needs to be improved to be sure that this doesn't happen again. And we're going to be working with the CDC to make sure of that."

Questa storia della communication ricorda vagamente lo tsunami.

Laurie Garrett, author of "The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World out of Balance," said the mistake underscores problems with the U.S. public health safety net. "We've invested billions of dollars into alleged bioterrorism preparedness and to alleged preparedness for avian and pandemic influenza," she said. "This is a sorry indicator of how well the money has been spent."

Il taxpayer ringrazia. Ma non finisce qui:

Vancouver lab mishap alerted world to flu pandemic risk

A chain of events that began in a microbiology laboratory in a Vancouver hospital may have helped avert a global pandemic when it was discovered last month that a potentially deadly flu strain had been shipped to 4,000 labs worldwide.

The alert has led to laboratories around the world rapidly destroying stocks of deadly H2N2 flu strain, which killed four million people during a flu pandemic in 1957.

But the problem only came to light when the Vancouver laboratory, which has not been identified, sent a patient specimen to the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg.

The Winnipeg lab did extensive tests and relayed the results to the Vancouver facility, which alerted health authorities in this country and in the U.S. that a deadly strain had been accidentally shipped to about 4,000 laboratories in 18 countries for practise-only purposes.

Ironically, however, it was a mistake made in the Vancouver lab that eventually led to the discovery.

Qualcuno starà sbattendo la testa sul muro?

Dr. Perry Kendall, B.C.'s top public health official, said the chain of events originated in March when the Vancouver hospital sent a sample from a female patient to the national lab for further testing to determine what subtype of influenza A she had. It turned out the sample had been cross-contaminated with H2N2.

The sample took three weeks to culture and subtype; results finally came back on the Easter weekend. Thousands of other labs around the world were also unwittingly in possession of the H2N2 virus because none had bothered to do the kind of detailed subtyping that was done in this case.

Kendall said the sample was sent for further testing to Winnipeg because "influenza didn't fit with the patient's clinical symptoms.

"There was no history of her getting anything that looked like influenza."

He said when the national lab revealed the results "we were really concerned that we had discovered a new strain of influenza in our population, but then we realized this patient had not travelled, had no contacts with any potential sources of H2N2.

"So upon further discussion, we decided that her sample was probably contaminated. Then the detective work figured out that on the same day that her specimen had been prepared for shipping to the lab in Winnipeg, the lab had also been conducting proficiency testing," said Kendall, referring to the tests lab workers conduct to know how to identify and characterize viral strains.

Kendall said the lab is conducting a review to find out precisely how the cross-contamination occurred. "It's a problem the lab is addressing. It's always a problem which laboratories can have, because it takes just minute traces for this to happen.

"In a perfect world, cross-contamination would not occur and it is indeed very rare," Dr. Danuta Skowronski, physician-epidemiologist at the B.C. Centre for Disease Control, added. "But obviously, humans are fallible. Those who work in laboratories are taught to assume that every agent is potentially infectious, whether they know what it is or not," she said.

Kendall said he was refusing to disclose the identity of the hospital lab "because there is nothing to be gained, from a public health [point of view by] disclosing it." Skowronski said health officials act on a "need to know basis and if there is no threat to public health, there is no need to disclose" the hospital identity.

E' per la salute pubblica, io ci credo!

Dr. Perry Kendall, B.C.'s top public health official, said when the vials were shipped, they were improperly labelled as A/Shanghai, related to the influenza strain that has been circulating in North America this past winter. Kendall said it was "neither sensible nor wise" to send the H2N2 subtype and it was also "unacceptable to mislabel the vials."

Una serie di sfortunate coincidenze.

The U.S. government is investigating. The WHO has alerted labs which received the virus to destroy it.

E se stanno investigando loro, probabilmente l'influenza finirà nell'automobile della Sgrena.

Asian Lab Worker Opened Flu Vial: Report

Hong Kong media is reporting a lab worker in that city opened vials containing a fatal flu strain before health experts worldwide were warned to destroy the sample. The worker is reportedly in good health but is being monitored. The World Health Organization said earlier this week that thousands of labs were accidentally sent vials containing the Asian Flu. The disease is believed to be responsible for as many as four million deaths in 1957.

Proprio in Asia, guarda la sfortuna!

Deadly influenza virus shipments missing

Health experts have destroyed most samples of a deadly influenza strain mistakenly sent to labs around the world; but two shipments meant to reach Mexico and Lebanon are missing, UN officials said Friday.

Ma che peccato: proprio il Messico, dove il confine ormai non esiste più, e il Libano. Forse Bin Laden porterà l'influenza dal Messico e otterrà l'amnistia in quanto immigrato illegale.

"We don't know where these boxes got lost, but the investigation into what has happened between the shipment of these panels and their non-arrival is ranking very high on our 'to do' list," WHO influenza chief Klaus Stohr said, referring to the Mexico and Lebanon shipments.

The samples were unintentionally sent to nearly 4,000 labs in 18 countries at the request of the College of American Pathologists, which assists laboratories to do quality testing.

Most of them have been destroyed so far, The World Health Organization confirmed Friday, but two shipments meant to reach Mexico and Lebanon are unaccounted for. Stohr said Friday that 10 countries that had received samples confirmed their labs destroyed the virus. Those countries include: Canada, Chile, France, Hong Kong, Belgium, Germany Italy, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore.

However, laboratories in Lebanon and Mexico "never received the specimen even though they were on the distribution list," Stohr said. He said it was possible the samples had never been sent to the two countries, but that he couldn't be sure.

Siete una manica di deficienti?

The five other nations that had received the samples were Saudi Arabia, Bermuda, Brazil, Israel and Japan. Stohr said four of the five labs in Saudi Arabia that received the samples had destroyed them. The other four countries had not yet confirmed that they followed up on instructions to destroy the samples.
[...]
"The carrier, the transporter and packager would have to be questioned particularly about these packages.

Non li avete spediti con l'UPS, vero?

2 nations never received deadly flu kits: WHO

GENEVA - Some samples of a pandemic flu strain accidentally sent to labs around the world never made it to their destinations in Lebanon and Mexico, the World Health Organization said Friday. Officials at the United Nations health agency aren't sure that the samples were actually sent, however.

"Some of the countries and laboratories never received anything," said the organization's flu expert, Klaus Stohr. "They were on the address list of the college, but never received anything." WHO officials are trying to confirm whether kits were shipped to Mexico and Lebanon before launching an intensive search for the supposedly missing samples, he said.

Beginning in October, the College of American Pathologists mistakenly sent 3,747 international laboratories a strain of H2N2 influenza similar to the one that killed 4 million people when it sparked a 1957 flu pandemic.

Rullo di tamburi...

Samples of pandemic flu virus sent to Lebanon, Mexico and Chile missing

Most of the samples were sent starting last October at the request of the College of American Pathologists, or CAP, which helps labs do microbiology proficiency testing. The last shipments were sent in February.

Non dirmi che...

"CAP confirmed that they did ship the samples and they normally ship through DHL and FedEx and they have traced already the paths of some of these samples," Stohr said from Geneva.

I coglioni globali spediscono l'influenza in giro per il mondo col CORRIERE ESPRESSO!

"But the final conclusion on these three shipments cannot be made. The investigation is ongoing. And again, we hope tomorrow (Saturday) we can shed some light on where these samples went."

Forse il fattorino ha perso il pacco in un vicolo?

Stohr said it's unlikely someone deliberately intercepted the errant packages because there are much easier ways to obtain the virus (laboratories and hospitals worldwide have stored samples). And he believes the risk of the powdered freeze-dried material causing infection if it has been dumped somewhere is relatively low.

Flu Strain Samples Remain at Large

"Anyone born after 1968 would not have had any exposure to this and would be completely susceptible," Gerberding said. "We are doing everything we can to make sure this virus does not infect an individual or spread to the public at large."

Compreso spedire pacchi d'influenza col CORRIERE ESPRESSO?

The first clues began to emerge about why Meridian Bioscience Inc. of Cincinnati included the virus in test kits the company began shipping last fall to more than 6,000 facilities, mostly in the United States, as part of routine certification of their lab testing abilities.

The company "felt the virus they had was a safe virus" because it had been grown through numerous generations in the laboratory, which often weakens viruses, said Jared Schwartz, a spokesman for the College of American Pathologists, the group that requested the most kits. Schwartz noted that U.S. regulations list the virus in a category that permits companies such as Meridian to ship it.

Ma è chiaro: forse il virus si era stancato, proviamo a spedirlo comunque col CORRIERE ESPRESSO e vediamo un po' se dall'altra parte indovinano che cosa abbiamo spedito!

"They didn't break any regulations, but we can say perhaps they didn't use good judgment," said Schwartz, who added that his organization did not know the company had included this particular strain. "If we had known... we would not have sent it out."

Although many viruses become less dangerous after being grown for long periods in the laboratory, Gerberding said, there is no way to know whether that had happened to this virus.

Meridian maintained yesterday in a statement to investors that it was "in compliance with all applicable regulations." Company officials did not make themselves available for interviews despite repeated requests.

E se siete in compliance allora siamo a posto!

Gerberding said that the CDC had been working with the National Institutes of Health to change the classification of dangerous flu viruses to require more stringent safety precautions and that it will now expedite that process. "We will urgently be recommending a higher level of protection be used for any novel influenza virus," Gerberding said. "We're going to put this on a fast track."

Tra CDC, WHO, NIH e Meridian chi sarà il più imbecille?

Flu experts said the case is a sobering reminder of how easily mistakes can occur with the potential to unleash dangerous pathogens. "This is an important wake-up call for all of us," said William Schaffner, a flu expert at Vanderbilt University. "It reminds all of us who work in laboratories and run them that laboratory safety has got to be a priority."

Ancora la wake-up call.

The fact that the error occurred at a company involved in testing the proficiency of labs was particularly surprising.

"The irony is that it was part of a routine proficiency test. Here we have the very people involved in a quality-assurance exercise that actually went awry," he said.

Ma che strano!

The government has failed to keep a close inventory on dangerous pathogens, Schaffner added.

Incredibile!

"There are thousands of laboratories -- government laboratories, academic laboratories, commercial laboratories. All of them have pathogens -- viral, bacterial, whatever. We know relatively little about which bugs are in which laboratories," he said.

Poi vieni a lamentarti che la brigata al-Fedèx ha le WMD, così ci facciamo altre quattro risate.

E buona Age of Reason a tutti...

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