Scandal pox viruses discovered in the storage room

US lab workers find smallpox virus stocks in storage room

09/07/2014

Just over two months ago, the World Health Organization (WHO) initiated a discussion on the destruction of the supposedly smallpox viruses that are stored in two specialized laboratories (one in the US, one in Russia) to this day. But employees of a US laboratory have now surprisingly discovered in their storage rooms further smallpox stocks.

In early July, it was reported to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), „Employees in an unused portion of a storage room at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) lab on the NIH Bethesda campus have a sealed vial labeled variola(Smallpox) discovered“, according to the Communication from the US Department of Health (CDC) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. During the preparation for a move of the laboratory, the vials were noticed by the employees.

Pox viruses probably stored in the 1950s
According to the CDC, the vials of the poxvirus probably come from „from the 1950s.“ There is no evidence that the marked vials have been damaged and that the biological safety of personnel has never been compromised, the US Department of Health further reports. The vials were collected and sent to the laboratory in Atlanta for analysis, where poxviruses are still stored. The subsequent DNA tests confirmed that they were poxviruses. Further tests are now to show whether the material in the vial is viable or whether an increase in tissue cultures is possible. The investigations can take up to two weeks, according to the US Department of Health. „Upon completion of this test, samples are destroyed under the supervision of the WHO“, the CDC continues.

New uncertainty
The discovery of smallpox virus stocks in the unused part of the laboratory's storage room raises the question of whether other poxviruses might be stored elsewhere. The discussion about an annihilation of the alleged last poxviruses is thus extended by a decisive point of view. Even though no human has been naturally infected with smallpox since 1977 and the WHO declared that smallpox was eradicated in 1980, it is no longer possible to fully rule out infection via previously undiscovered populations. (Fp)