A Big, Ugly Whoopsie

Guess what? A real-life version of a Captain Trips-type influenza virus really does exist and may be a threat.

WASHINGTON — 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 Tuesday.

Because the virus is easily transmitted from person to person and many people have no immunity to it, the discovery has raised alarm that it could cause another deadly pandemic if a laboratory worker became infected, officials said.

As a result, health authorities were working to make sure all samples are destroyed and to monitor anyone who may have come into contact with the virus for signs of illness, officials said.

“This virus could cause a pandemic,” said Klaus Stohr, the World Health Organization’s top flu expert. “We are talking about a fully transmissible human influenza virus to which the majority of the population has no immunity. We are concerned.”[SNIP]

The virus, known as an H2N2 strain, killed 1 million to 4 million people worldwide in 1957 and 1958, including about 70,000 in the United States. Because the virus has not circulated in the wild since 1968, anyone born after then would have no natural immunity to it. Since then the virus has been kept only in high-security biological laboratories.

Of course, the danger has its genesis in human error.

The problem arose when Meridian Bioscience Inc. of Cincinnati, a private company, 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 and were asked to destroy them, CDC spokesman Dan Rutz said.

The panel samples usually include only strains of the flu virus that are relatively benign, Stohr said. “We would consider this an unwise and unfortunate decision.”

The mistake came to light March 25 when the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, Manitoba, identified the virus.

Stephen King: prophet? Or merely an accurate predictor of Murphy’s Law(s)?

After hearing about this on the TV news, I toyed with the idea of not posting about it. No need in contributing to panic. But my nieces and nephews were born well after 1968--heck, their parents were born after that—and so were most of your kids, readers, so I figure that knowledge is power even if the only power to resolve the situation is received from prayer.

Comments

[Queenie]

I read the same story yesterday, and the first thing that popped into my mind was "Captain Tripps". Shiver. It's frightening, to me, to think of the number of diseases we experiment with in a lab setting that we have no ability to contain or cure. I know that we gotta research 'em to understand 'em...but that leaves a lot of convenient openings for The Dark Man, doesn't it? Yeah, I'm kidding...but...

See you in Boulder. ;)

[EdWonk]

We don't need any Captain Tripps OR Randall Flaggs. I hope that they contain it...

[Sigivald]

The difference being that unlike the virus from the book, even if it's pandemic, it won't kill 99% of the population.

[Brian H]

It was kinda wierd how the mistake was ACCIDENTALLY discovered, too. It was heavily dosed in a dish being cultured in the same unit as a real patient sample, and managed to cross over into the patient's dish. When the patient dish was given standard testing, it came up positive for this virus. It was so unusual the data was kicked upstairs to a National lab for review, which was very dubious it could be a real infection, especially since patient symptoms didn't match. So they initiated a fast investigation of the testing routine, and discovered the nature of the other dish's sample. And notified the source and WHO, etc.

Just luck and a quick reaction to an anomaly.

[Brian H]

PS;
The virus is for a very serious known past flu, not a mutated freak. The Tripps reference is over the top.

[Brian H]

PS;
The virus is of a very serious known past flu, not a mutated freak. The Tripps reference is over the top.

[DarkStar]

There should be little concern about it being released into the general population. The concern is that controls were not enough for this mistake to happen.

[birdwoman]

The first couple of chapters in that book still freak me out, because they're so plausible...

(*)>

[Alnot]

The Mr Tripps reference may be over the top but the incompetence that caused this is entirely plausible. A flu pandemic would still still be very real to the possible millions that die and the already overburdened healthcare system. Few people realize that we are only a small series of disasters away from economic collapse and the end of civilization as we know it. Thanks Julie for what you wrote.

[Chevy Rose]

Hey, I survived the Asia flu in 1957. After nearly dying. Passed out if I stood up and couldn't eat for days. It was real bad and the only medicine I can remember taking was aspirin for the fever. I don't wish that crap on anyone.

[Bane]

Bring it on!

[Carridine]

Juliette,
I see one part Captain Tripps, one part Stephen King, one part 13 Monkeys and one part Dedicated Hater/Al-Qaeda...

THEN, a truly ferocious decimation of humanity, jumping everywhere in 24 hours of the gestational, pre-symptomatic Airtravel-As-Usual...

Who picks up the pieces, when 900 million dead Muslims can't be buried by their ill, enfeebled survivors?

And the same question holds for America and EUnuchistan...