Posted on 03/24/2013 5:28:52 PM PDT by markomalley
A vial containing a potentially harmful virus has gone missing from a laboratory at the University of Texas Medical Branch, officials said.
The missing vial, which contains less than a quarter of a teaspoon an infectious disease, had been stored in a locked freezer, designed to handle biological material safely, within the Galveston National Laboratory on UTMB's campus, officials said. During a routine internal inspection last week, UTMB officials realized one vial of a virus called Guanarito was not accounted for at the facility.
Scott Weaver, the laboratory's scientific director, said Guanarito is an emerging disease that has caused deadly diseases in Venezuela. The federal government prioritizes it for research because it has the potential to be used a weapon for terrorists.
On Tuesday, an investigator discovered that only four out of five vials were stored of the virus in the grid system. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was notified immediately.
Lab officials searched but has not been able to locate the other vial.
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
That’s funny. And yes I have been known to have a sick sense of humor on occasion.
I ain't got the money. What little I had is long gone, and there's bills aplenty to pay yet. I buried my mother today. Can't pay for that neither.
I wouldn't worry about it.
Wow!
What I’d like to know is just how long has it been missing, they just discovered it was missing last week? Don’t they have to “sign” in to get stuff out of the locked freezer?
First thing that popped into my mind also.
“Officials suspect that the virus was likely destroyed during the normal laboratory decontamination and cleaning process”
Anyone with access to that sort of material sould have enough sense to have at least three sets of witnesses, signed & videotaped, to the destruction.
IF it happened!
Chain of custody. If my name is on the last custody or access document I’m going to make sure that I have PROOF that it was destroyed.
Anyone seen Sandy Berger lately?
Or radicalized environmentalists.
A lost vial of a deadly virus? Could happen to anyone, and afterall, they still have four vials left.
How did it get that name, University of Texas Medical Branch? Are there other branches?
Thanks for the ping!
Yes—I think there is a branch in San Antone, and maybe one more somewhere.
Not to worry. The article says that the virus is only transmitted by Venezuelan rats.
Whew! That makes me feel better. All my rats are bonafide Texans.
Seriously, everytime they cry “The sky is or might fall” over and over..the less people will pay attention when something really bad comes down the pike.
I can't do much about it anyway. No sense in letting good beer go to waste.
/johnny
There is one in Galveston, I am pretty sure.
“BritSpeak” for “missing.”
Brits do butcher the English language. For example, they drop the article “the”...e.g., “he’s at hospital.” Then they add the superfluous “gone” to “missing.” Go figure.
The man-made global warming chicken littles have voiced such solutions to the problem of “overpopulation.” I have often said that these research facilities should be careful of leftist scientists. They also have to be care of Muslims in Texas.
Has Apollo 13 called in?
I thought exactly the same thing, naturally, I’m an Islamophobe for the mere suggestion.
The UTMB that they are talking about is the one in Galveston.
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