- AVIAN INFLUENZA, ACCIDENTAL DISTRIBUTION - CZECH REPUBLIC
ex AUSTRIA (03)
-
- A ProMED-mail post
- http://www.promedmail.org
- ProMED-mail is a program of the
- International Society for Infectious Diseases
- http://www.isid.org
-
- Date: Mon 16 Mar 2009
- Source: The Financial Times online [edited]
- ac.html
-
- WHO Mulls Stricter Transport Of Bio Products
-
- Public health officials are studying the need for tighter
controls on the transport of biological products after Baxter, the US pharmaceutical
company, inadvertently supplied samples of the H5N1 bird flu virus to a
series of European laboratories. Specialists from the World Health Organisation
(WHO) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC)
are monitoring the case at a time of growing concern that existing international
rules to minimise the risks of the spread of pathogens are too weak.
-
- Their scrutiny follows an incident that recently came
to light when samples of H5N1 from Baxter's Austrian labs contaminated
batches of the less harmful H3N2 seasonal flu virus that it was supplying
under a commercial contract to a customer, Avir Greenhills Biotechnology.
-
- A combination of H3N2, which is highly transmissible
between humans, and H5N1, which has killed hundreds of millions of chickens
and other [birds] in recent years, could potentially lead to a mutated
virus that forms the basis of a new human pandemic threatening millions
of lives, according to scientists. Baxter stressed that the H3N2 strain
had been made replication-defective, and was handled in tightly controlled
laboratories purely for experiments, so there was little chance it could
have led to outbreak threatening humans. It also stressed that all staff
potentially exposed were tested and given antiviral treatment to prevent
any infection.
-
- Baxter said the H5N1 samples were provided for its own
research into a pandemic vaccine it is developing, and were from a variant
of the virus identified in Viet Nam and provided to the company by the
US Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. "The material was handled
appropriately in all steps of the process in the right conditions,"
said Chris Bona, a Baxter spokesman. The experimental material was produced
exclusively for laboratory testing, was not used for product production
and was not for use in humans. It somehow mixed with H3N2 before distribution
last December [2008] to Avir, and the more potent virus was detected by
a subcontractor in the Czech Republic last month [February 2009] after
it rapidly killed ferrets exposed to the viruses. Avir had also sent samples
to Slovenia and Germany. Mr Bona stressed that Baxter had since taken corrective
preventative actions and its procedures had been approved by the Austrian
authorities.
-
- The incident comes just after the conclusion of an EU-funded
project on biosafety highlighted the need for improvement to national regulatory
frameworks for biosafety and laboratory biosecurity.
-
- --
- Communicated by:
- ProMED-mail Rapporteur Mary Marshall
-
- [Unfortunately there is no clarification of the basic
error:
- ......."It [H5N1 virus] somehow mixed with H3N2
before distribution
- last December [2008] to Avir". This thread is now
cut. - Mod.CP]
-
- see also:
- Avian influenza, accidental distribution - Czech Rep.
ex Austria (02)
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- Avian influenza, accidental distribution - Czech Rep.
ex Austria: RFI
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- ...................................
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- cp/mj/dk
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-
- Henry L. Niman, Ph.D.
- President, Founder
- Recombinomics, Inc.
- 648 Field Club Road
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