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Nearly 100 live samples of a deadly virus have gone missing in a “serious” biosecurity breach at a state-run Australian laboratory. 323 virus samples in total have been reported missing, including two vials containing hantavirus, 223 containing lyssavirus, and 98 vials containing the deadly Hendra virus.
According to ABC News in Australia, Health Minister Tim Nicholls announced on Monday that the virus samples went missing from Virology Laboratory in 2021 in a what he called a “major breach” of biosecurity protocol.
Nicholls added that the biosecurity breach was not discovered until August 2023 and the lab has been unable to confirm whether or not the materials contained in the vials were removed or destroyed. They went missing after a freezer they were being stored in at the lab broke down.
“It’s this part of the transfer of those materials that is causing concern,” Nicholls said. “The materials may have been removed from that secure storage and lost, or otherwise unaccounted-for.”
The Hendra virus, according to the World Health Organization, “causes severe and often fatal disease in both infected horses and humans.”
Hantavirus can cause headache, dizziness, chills, fever, myalgia, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pains, diarrhea, respiratory distress and hypotension. Lyssavirus causes a similar illness to that of rabies, which affects the central nervous system and cause paralysis, delirium, convulsions and death.
On a somewhat positive note, Nicholls expressed, “There is nothing to suggest that these have been taken from the laboratory. Secondly […] we don’t have any evidence that Hendra virus has been weaponized in any way in any research laboratory.
“Of course, all this kind of research is taken in secret, but we are not aware that this has been weaponized in any way. The process of weaponizing a virus is very sophisticated, and is not something an amateur does.”
Queensland Chief Health Officer Dr. John Gerrard also downplayed any cause for concern, stating, “No Hendra or lyssavirus cases have been detected among humans in Queensland over the past five years, and there has been no report of hantavirus infections in humans ever in Australia.”
Gerrard added, “It’s difficult to conceive of a scenario whereby the public could be at risk. It’s important to note that virus samples would degrade very rapidly outside a low temperature freezer and become non-infectious.”
An investigation to determine how such a biosecurity breach involving these virus samples could occur has been put into action.
“The systems and processes in laboratories handling such deadly pathogens are usually so robust and rigorous … these sort of things just can’t happen,” infectious diseases expert Dr. Paul Griffin said about the breach.