Newsweek – Hundreds of vials containing live viruses have gone missing from a laboratory in Australia, sparking an investigation.
Queensland Health Minister Tim Nicholls announced today that 323 samples of live viruses—including Hendra virus, Lyssavirus and Hantavirus—went missing in 2021 in a “serious breach of biosecurity protocols.”
The breach was discovered in August 2023, with nearly 100 of the missing vials containing Hendra virus, which is deadly. Two of the vials contained hantavirus, while 223 vials contained samples of lyssavirus.
Hendra virus was first discovered in the mid-1990s after infecting and killing several horses in Australia. Only a handful of humans have caught the disease after being infected by horses, but a large proportion of infected people died.
“Hendra virus has a 57 percent fatality rate in humans and has had a devastating impact on those who have been infected, their families and on the veterinary and equine industries in areas where the virus spills over,” Raina Plowright, a professor at the department of public and ecosystem health at Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, previously told Newsweek.
Hantavirus is carried by rodents and can cause Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS), which has a mortality rate of around 38 percent, while lyssavirus is similar to rabies and also has a very high mortality rate.
The lab has not been able to conclude if the viruses were destroyed or removed from secure storage, but they do not appear to have been stolen.
“There is nothing to suggest that these have been taken from the laboratory. Secondly […] we don’t have any evidence that Hendra virus has been weaponized in any way in any research laboratory,” Nicholls said at a press conference.
“Of course, all this kind of research is taken in secret” …
