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beskeptigal
SFN Die Hard
USA
3834 Posts |
 Posted - 04/13/2005 : 02:29:34
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As if the threat of Highly Pathogenic Avian Flu wasn't bad enough!
quote:
A dangerous strain of the flu virus that caused a worldwide pandemic in 1957 was sent to thousands of laboratories in the United States and around the world, triggering a frantic effort to destroy the samples to prevent an outbreak, health officials revealed yesterday.
The problem arose when a private company, Meridian Bioscience Inc. of Cincinnati, sent a panel of virus samples to about 3,700 laboratories, some in doctors' offices, to be tested as part of routine quality-control certification conducted by the College of American Pathologists. An additional 2,750 laboratories, all in the United States, received the samples as part of other certification processes and were asked to destroy them, CDC spokesman Dan Rutz said.
The mistake came to light March 25 when the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, Manitoba, identified the virus. "They were doing this routine testing and identified this virus and said, 'This shouldn't be here,' " Rutz said. Canadian officials notified WHO and the CDC on Friday.
The incompetence here is mind boggling. We could end up with a pandemic of two different strains of very deadly flu at the same time.
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