Dailymail.Com Senior Health Reporter Written by Luke Andrews
19:16 March 17, 2024, Updated 19:16 March 17, 2024
Data shows ‘alarmingly high number’ of lab leaks at top virology labs in US as centers are asked to reduce the number of experiments carried out on diseases that can cause pandemics each year An incident is occurring.
According to official data, the US recorded more than 600 releases of “controlled” pathogens (which could include anthrax, tuberculosis and Ebola) in the eight years ending in 2022, an increase of 70 per year. Equivalent to ~100 releases.
At least two U.S. workers in the past eight years have been infected after “release incidents,” including chikungunya, a deadly mosquito-borne virus, and Q fever, a bacterial infection. However, no deaths have been reported.
Many of the incidents were caused by scientists spilling the contents of test tubes, not wearing safety equipment properly, or being bitten or scratched by infected animals.
All of them carried the risk that the disease could be accidentally released into the community and the pathogen could start the next pandemic.
In some cases, the disease has leaked from the lab due to equipment malfunctions or improper practices, such as pouring infected monkey blood down a plughole.
Experts said the worrying numbers, collected by the Federal Selective Agent Program (FSAP), are a warning of the dangers posed by experimentation with these viruses.
The coronavirus pandemic comes amid growing suspicions that it was the result of a laboratory leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which was known to be conducting coronavirus experiments at the time.
Dr. Richard Ebright, a microbiologist at Rutgers University in New Jersey, said the data shows an “alarmingly high frequency” of laboratory accidents in the United States.
“This also shows the lack of biosafety oversight by the U.S. government and the lack of public transparency,” he told DailyMail.com.
“It’s going to be an eye-opener for people who aren’t in this field.”
The top microbiologist also warned that these numbers were likely an underestimate because laboratories that test for other diseases, such as chickenpox, are not required to report incidents within their facilities.
A spokesperson for the Government Accountability Office in Washington, D.C., which has long campaigned on the issue, warned that lack of safety in laboratories “continues to pose a serious threat to human health.”
She told DailyMail.com: “We brought to Congress in 2018 the continuing lack of safety in U.S. laboratories conducting research on dangerous pathogens such as the Ebola virus and anthrax. I testified,” he said.
“These pose serious risks to human, animal and plant health.”
An accidental release is defined as when a pathogen, such as a virus, may have escaped outside the primary containment area, such as a test tube or special ventilation equipment where a test was being conducted.
Few details were available about individual incidents, including the pathogens released, how the release occurred, and where it occurred.
Officials are not releasing this information because of a suspected “national security risk” to the United States.
One of the incidents occurred in September 2016, when a student at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, accidentally punctured safety equipment and alerted his supervisor after pricking his finger with a needle contaminated with the chikungunya virus. I spent four days walking around the area before. .
The student complained of fever, body aches and chills, and was subsequently admitted to hospital, where he tested positive for the mosquito-borne illness.
In another case in May 2018, anthrax was accidentally released from a boiler room in Fort Detrick, Maryland, into a nearby river where people were planting lily pads after a storm flooded the room. It became clear that it was possible.
In 2015, a lab in Louisiana may have mistakenly released a disease known as “Vietnam time bomb fever” into the local environment after monkeys in a colony near the lab began testing positive. Concerns have been raised that this may not be the case.
In 2014, more lapses were revealed when vials containing viable smallpox virus were discovered in a cold room at an FDA laboratory rather than in a properly secured area.
There are at least seven Biosafety Level 4 (BSL4) laboratories in the United States that are authorized to store and experiment with the most dangerous pathogens known to humanity.
The United States also has dozens of biosafety level 3 (BSL3) laboratories that are authorized to store and experiment with dangerous pathogens.
Scientists at the institutes have previously said that regulations for these institutes are “patchwork” at best, and that they do not know which authorities to report to.
In September 2022, GAO proposed that a single agency be established to oversee laboratories similar to the nuclear industry, but this recommendation was rejected by the White House.
An October 2023 hearing on laboratory regulation by the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic also revealed holes in the oversight of these centers.
They concluded as follows. “Both commissioners and witnesses pointed to the lack of clear standards for the design, construction, and operation of high-containment laboratories.
‘[This] Increased risk of research-related accidents. ”
They called on the U.S. to standardize laboratory regulations to prevent further accidents that could spark a new pandemic.
According to the data, there are 59 BSL4 labs around the world, with almost half of them in Europe.
The world’s largest facility was WIV, with 3,000 meters of testing space, but an even larger facility opened in Manhattan, Kansas, last June.
As in the United States, many laboratory leaks have occurred overseas as well.
One of the most notable incidents was in Russia, where anthrax was accidentally released from a laboratory in Sverdlovsk, near Yekaterinburg in central Russia, killing at least 68 people.
Witnesses said they saw a “large pink cloud” floating above the laboratory after the accident.
Some scientists believe that laboratory releases caused the 1977 influenza pandemic. The pandemic started in the former Soviet Union and has since spread around the world.
A young adult has been infected with a type of influenza that hasn’t been observed in the wild for decades, raising the theory of a lab leak.
