Posted on 03/25/2013 8:57:36 PM PDT by dragnet2
The Galveston National Laboratory lost one of five vials containing a deadly Venezuelan virus, according to the University of Texas Medical Branch, which owns the $174 million facility designed with the strictest security measures to hold the deadliest viruses in the country.
Like Ebola, the missing Guanarito virus causes hemorrhagic fever, an illness named for "bleeding under the skin, in internal organs or from body orifices like the mouth, eyes, or ears," according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"This is clearly an incident that is very discomforting and embarrassing to the University of Texas Medical Center and their national biosecurity lab that they have there,"
"The mortality is anywhere from at least 10 to 20 percent or slightly more," Kurilla told ABCNews.com, adding that there is no treatment or cure for Guanarito. "That is considered very, very severe if you have a 1 in 5 chance of dying without anything to do for the person other than provide supportive hospital care."
The Galveston researchers were conducting a routine inspection on March 20 and 21 when they noticed there were only four Guanarito vials instead of five.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
How nice...
Ruh Roh...
” vials containing a deadly Venezuelan virus...”
Thought it was dead already.
Anyone named Mohammed working in that lab? After all, we must celebrate diversity!/sarcasm
Read Return of the Black Death by Susan Scott and Christopher Duncan. The book studies the plagues from 1347 to 1666 that killed half the population of Europe. The authors prove that it wasn't Bubonic Plague from rat fleas that caused the Black Death like everyone was taught in school, it was a hemorrhagic virus transmitted from person to person.
I would fire and jail the director of this lab. Pension gone. Seriously. Fire, jail and pension gone for anyone who was responsible for handling/keeping it recorded where it was supposed to be.
Anyway, I didn't know there was such a lab there. A hurricane coming into Galveston could tear the building to pieces and a number of those buildings were flooded due to Ike. I think that's a poor place to have deadly diseases.
Thankfully it is not spread by humans.
Ping....
Not that we know of.
There are actually three forms of Bubonic Plague, which are somewhat dependent on the state of the immune system of the patient. The bubonic form is the least fatal, as there is still an effective lymphatic system which collects the toxins/bacteria in the lymph nodes which swell up and turn black. The second highly fatal form is septicemic which basically poisons the blood in a person with weak immunity. The third highly fatal pneumonic/hemorrhagic form is transmitted from person to person through the air. Here is the Center for Disease Control on the subject.
http://www.cdc.gov/plague/faq/
Bubonic plague is endemic among the wild rodent populations of something like 17 western states. The Black Rat in Europe seems to have been particulaly effective in spreading the disease as it lived upstairs with the people. The Norwegian gray rat which is so common in our cities is a cellar and sewer dweller where it and its fleas comes into less contact with people.
If we were in crisis with a major outbreak, I would lay in a supply of vitamin C and the C complex substance called Pycnogenol, not to mention other immune enhancers.
bumping for later
“bumping for later”
Assuming there IS a later...
Zombie Time???
I'll just bet that, that was a very unpleasant day at work for the principles involved.
“This is clearly an incident that is very discomforting and embarrassing to the University of Texas Medical Center and their national biosecurity lab that they have there,”
THEY are disturbed and embarrassed?
Oh, isn’t that special...
Of course, Al Quaida has no lack of bioweaponeers in its ranks.
Not as plain. But you can bet it’s child’s play to piggyback it on something else. Safe to work with, while you splice it into something waterborne, for example.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.