Interesting story from UK regarding missing deadly E-coli, please note the inference within the article to immigrants to the UK and deadly outbreaks.
GERM WHEREFARE
Feb 22 2004
90 phials of deadly E-coli lost for 72hrs Terror link is probed by police and MI5
By Mike Hamilton
SPY chiefs were braced for a doomsday terror attack after lethal E-coli bacteria vanished on the way to a Government laboratory.
Police and the M15 were put on alert amid fears that the shipment of E-coli 0157 - sealed in a box marked "Bio Hazard" - had fallen into terrorist hands.
Four police forces and the secret security service launched a massive hunt in the North of England after 90 phials of the killer bug were lost.
The batch of E-coli 0157 - missing for 72 hours - is the same type that killed 21 pensioners in Lanarkshire in 1996 in the world's worst-ever food poisoning outbreak.
And it was feared the death toll would have run into
thousands if a terror group had managed to "weaponise" the bacteria.
A police source said last night: "The consequences if this sort of material fell into the wrong hands don't bear thinking about."
Police from the Merseyside, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Cheshire forces hunted the deadly cargo for three days before it was found in Liverpool.
And the Health Protection Agency (HPA) - responsible for the shipment - has now launched a review of procedures for transporting hazardous material.
The drama began on January 15, when a courier was sent to collect the phials - individually sealed in a vacuum box - from Liverpool Veterinary School in The Wirral.
The box should have been delivered immediately to the HPA's laboratory at Manchester Royal Infirmary. When it failed to arrive, workers raised the alarm and contacted police in Manchester. The three other police forces and MI5 agents joined the huge investigation. Three days later the E-coli was traced to an address in Liverpool. A 35-year-old courier company driver was arrested and later bailed pending further inquiries.
The HPA was set up last April to reduce the impact of outbreaks and infections - and to reduce the risk of chemical, poison and radiation attacks through a network of scientists and labs. It is also responsible for protecting the public from bio-chemical attack and has a research facility at the top-secret chemical and germ warfare labs at Porton Down in Wiltshire. Yesterday the HPA confirmed that a box containing specimens of E-coli 0157 taken from contaminated farm animals had gone missing but was later recovered "intact and secure".
The HPA's spokesman added: "We can give an assurance that there was no risk to the public. "A driver employed by a courier firm that specialises in the transportation of medical and laboratory specimens has been questioned by police.
"While this inquiry is on-going it would not be appropriate to comment further."
Defence chiefs fear illegal immigrants working in farming and the food industry could introduce the lethal bug to the food chain.
A source said: "There are hundreds of illegal workers from Iraq and Afghanistan working in poultry factories in the Suffolk and Norfolk area.
"We are worried fundamentalists with links to terror groups like al-Qaeda could get their hands on something like this and inject it into animals."
Terrorism expert Simon Reeve said: "Police know terrorists have studied the food manufacturing and distribution process in the West with a view to targeting it.
"Somebody who works in the manufacturing industry could use this or terror groups could alter the E-coli in a lab to make it more deadly. This is not as worrying to the authorities as something like botulism or smallpox, but in the wrong hands this could certainly be used as a terror weapon.
"It could also be used by a local, British blackmailer. The police have a responsibility to react to every incident and the public should be reassured by the fact they responded to this."
THE KILLER BACTERIA
E-COLI comes from contaminated meat and can cause severe food poisoning.
The highly-contagious 0157 strain can be transferred from food to people, among animals and person-to-person by touch and in food preparation.
E-coli 0157 also contains a powerful toxin that can prove fatal, particularly among children and the elderly.
Symptoms of contamination include stomach cramps, vomiting and kidney failure.
Infectious bugs such as E-coli 0157 cause one in every 15 deaths in the UK.
Nationwide alert as the 90 phials of E-coli vanish
MI5 and four police forces put on state of alert
Package traced after 72 hours to Liverpool address
http://www.sundaymirror.co.uk/news/content_objectid=13975714_method=full_siteid=106694_headline=-GERM-WHEREFARE-name_page.html