On Wed, 2005-04-13 at 13:02 -0700, Frank Reichert wrote: > > "The risk is relatively low that a lab worker will > get sick, but a large number of labs got it and if someone does > get infected, the risk of severe illness is high and this virus > has shown to be fully transmissible," WHO's influenza chief, > Klaus Stohr, told The Associated Press.
ARGH! Ok, first, yes life has binary choices. Either it is transmissible or it isn't. Like being head or pregnant, you are or you aren't there is no in between. > On March 26, National Microbial Laboratory Canada > detected the 1957 pandemic strain in a sample not connected with > the test kit. After informing WHO and the CDC of the strange > finding, the lab investigated. It informed the U.N. health agency > on Friday that it had traced the virus to the test kit. > > The WHO then notified the health authorities in all > countries that received the kits and recommended that all the > samples be destroyed immediately. > > That same day, the College of American Pathologists > faxed the labs asking them to immediately incinerate the samples > and to confirm in writing that the operation had been completed. > > Stohr said the test kits are not the only supplies > of the 1957 pandemic strain sitting in laboratories around the world. > > "The world really has to think what routine labs > should be doing with these samples they have kept in the back of > their fridges," Storh said. > > Viruses are classed according to the level of lab > safety precautions that must be taken when handling them. Routine > viruses can be handled in labs with a basic level of biosafety > protection. However, very dangerous viruses, such as Ebola, can > only be handled at labs with top-level safety measures. Those > labs have a biosafety level of 4. > > The 1957 flu virus has for years been a level 2 > virus, but many countries have upgraded it to a biosafety level > of 3 because so many people have no immunity to it. Stohr said > U.S. officials reviewing the classification and are expected to > increase it to a level 3 later this summer. Basically, much ado about nothing. -- Bill Anderson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> _______________________________________________ Libnw mailing list Libnw@immosys.com List info and subscriber options: http://immosys.com/mailman/listinfo/libnw Archives: http://immosys.com/mailman//pipermail/libnw
