Venezuelan rat (Guanarito) virus vial missing from Galveston lab

[Shiloh]

Source: http://www.kltv.com/story/21779393/v...-galveston-lab


Virus vial missing from Galveston lab
Posted: Mar 24, 2013 1:31 PM EDT Updated: Mar 24, 2013 1:31 PM EDT

GALVESTON, Texas (AP) - Officials say a vial containing a virus that can cause hemorrhagic fever has gone missing from a research facility in Galveston, but say there's no reason to believe there's a threat to the public.

The University of Texas Medical Branch said Saturday that there was no breach in the security its Galveston National Laboratory and no indication of wrongdoing. Officials suspect the missing vial containing the Guanarito virus was destroyed...

[Shiloh]

Re: Venezuelan rat (Guanarito) virus vial missing from Galveston lab

Source: http://www.chron.com/news/houston-te...MB-4380346.php

Missing virus vial raises concerns at UTMB facility
By Erin Mulvaney | March 24, 2013 | Updated: March 24, 2013 2:14pm

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,...

[Giuseppe]

Re: Venezuelan rat (Guanarito) virus vial missing from Galveston lab

Venezuelan Haemorrhagic Fever Virus (Guanarito) belongs to the Arenaviridae Family, Genus Arenavirus.

This Genus accounts also for some other human pathogens such as Lassa, Junin, Machupo, Sabia and LCMV among the Others.

For complete taxonomy of Arenaviridae see also ICTV: http://ictvonline.org/virusTaxonomy.asp?version=2012

[Giuseppe]

Re: Venezuelan rat (Guanarito) virus vial missing from Galveston lab

At US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website, special pathogens page, is available a summary about Arenavirus diseases: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/spb/m...ages/arena.htm

[Story]

Vial of hemorrhagic fever virus goes missing in Texas

A virus that authorities worry could easily be weaponized as an aerosol went missing from a medical research facility in south Texas, an official at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston said Saturday.

About a quarter of a teaspoon of frozen viral material went missing last Wednesday, UTMB President David L. Callender explained in prepared text. The virus is an exotic strain from south America called Guanarito, which can cause a life-threatening condition that includes fever, convulsions and hemmhoraging.

The disease is usually spread to humans through rodent feces or urine, and a 2008 study published in the journal Virology found that it killed 23.1 percent of its 618 Venezuelan hosts between Sept. 1989 and Dec. 2006. It is not likely capable of spreading from human to human.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/03/25/vial-of-easily-weaponized-virus-goes-missing-in-texas/

GALVESTON, Texas (AP) - Officials say a vial containing a virus that can cause hemorrhagic fever has gone missing from a research facility in Galveston, but say there's no reason to believe there's a threat to the public.

http://www.kltv.com/story/21779393/virus-vial-missing-from-galveston-lab

[Emily]

Re: Venezuelan rat (Guanarito) virus vial missing from Galveston lab

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/fbi-cas...4#.UVSNQzeH-So

FBI Gets Case of Missing Virus at Texas Biolab

By SYDNEY LUPKIN
March 26, 2013

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has referred to the FBI the case of the laboratory where one of five vials of a deadly Venezuelan virus went missing, an official from the CDC told ABCNews.com.
[snip]
The last time the vial was used was November 2012, University of Texas Medical Branch spokesman Raul Reyes told ABCNews.com. The University of Texas Medical Branch owns the $174 million biolab, which was designed with the strictest security measures to hold the deadliest viruses in the country.

Only one scientist worked with the virus, and Reyes said the lab suspects that scientist accidentally threw the vial away in November...

Sounds like all this was just a bookkeeping oversight - understandable considering the stress involved in working with a virus like this.