Australian lab fails to explain disappearance of hundreds of vials with deadly viruses

Several hundred vials with deadly viruses have disappeared from a laboratory in Australia. This happened after a breach of "biosafety protocols," BELTA reports, citing Newsweek.

The Queensland Health Minister said that 323 samples of live viruses, including Hendra virus, lyssavirus, and hantavirus, went missing in 2021 as a result of a "serious breach of biosafety protocols."

However, the loss was discovered only in August 2023. It is noted that almost 100 of the missing vials contained the Hendra virus, which is deadly. Two vials contained hantavirus, and 223 vials contained lyssavirus samples.

The Hendra virus was first discovered in the mid-1990s. It is carried by bats and causes a fatal infection in horses and humans. The article notes that the fatality rate of the virus is 57 %.

Hantavirus is carried by rodents and can cause hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, which has a fatality rate of about 38%. Lyssavirus is similar to rabies and has a very high fatality rate.

The laboratory staff were unable to explain what happened to the virus samples. Apparently, the tubes went missing after the freezer in the virology lab where they were stored broke.

They were presumably moved to a working freezer without proper documentation. "The materials may have been removed from this secure storage and lost or otherwise not accounted for," the Queensland Health Minister said.

The Queensland Health Officer stressed that the risk to the public is low because the viruses do not survive well outside special low-temperature freezers and become non-infectious.

Newsweek reports that an investigation has been launched into the incident to determine how exactly the viruses disappeared and what prevented the disappearance of the vials from being discovered for nearly two years.