Lebanon, imagine that. Two shipments of deadly flu missing, WHO says Two-thirds of viral samples destroyed; search continues for others The Associated Press Updated: 1:21 p.m. ET April 15, 2005 GENEVA - Health experts have destroyed two-thirds of the specimens of a killer influenza virus sent as part of routine test kits around the world, but were still trying to trace two shipments that were supposed to go to Mexico and Lebanon, U.N. officials said Friday. The World Health Organization has been urging thousands of labs in 18 countries which received vials of the nearly 50-year-old H2N2 virus to destroy the samples amid fears of a global pandemic should the virus be released. WHO influenza chief Klaus Stohr said 10 of the countries which had received samples had confirmed their labs had destroyed the virus. Labs in Lebanon and Mexico, however, "never received the specimen even though they were on the distribution list," Stohr said. Investigation into missing test kits He said it was possible the shipments had never been sent out at all, but he could not be sure. WHO has requested an investigation into the missing kits, he said. Stohr said Hong Kong, Belgium, Singapore, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Italy, South Korea and Taiwan had all confirmed their labs had destroyed their samples. The five other countries with labs that received the kits were Saudi Arabia, Bermuda, Brazil, Israel and Japan. Stohr said Saudi Arabia had five labs with samples; four had already completed the destruction of the virus. The other four countries had not yet sent confirmation but had received instructions to destroy the virus. Most of the samples were sent starting last year at the request of the College of American Pathologists, or CAP, which helps labs do proficiency testing. The last shipments were sent out in February. It wasn't clear when the shipments were supposed to have gone to Mexico and Lebanon. "We don't know where these boxes got lost, but the investigation into what has happened between the shipment of these panels and their non-arrival is ranking very high on our 'to do' list," Stohr said. "We are worried, but CAP said there is a possibility they were never sent. (Otherwise), I cannot say at this stage what we would possibly do," Stohr said. "The carrier, the transporter and packager would have to be questioned particularly about these packages." C 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Take a look at donorschoose.org, an excellent charitable web site for anyone who cares about public education! http://us.click.yahoo.com/_OLuKD/8WnJAA/cUmLAA/TySplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: osint@yahoogroups.com Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
