World Health body sparks flu pandemic alert

Thousands of scientists were scrambling at the urging of global health authorities to destroy vials of a pandemic flu strain sent to labs in 18 countries as part of routine testing.

The rush, urged by the World Health Organisation, was sparked by a slim, but real, risk that the samples could spark a global flu epidemic. The vials of virus sent by a US company went to nearly 5,000 labs, mostly in the US, officials said yesterday.

“The risk is relatively low that a lab worker will get sick, but a large number of labs got it and if someone does get infected, the risk of severe illness is high and this virus has shown to be fully transmissible,” said WHO’s influenza chief, Klaus Stohr.

It was not immediately clear why the 1957 pandemic strain, which killed between 1 million and 4 million people – was in the proficiency test kits routinely sent to labs.

It was a decision that Stohr described as “unwise,” and ”unfortunate”.

The 1957 strain has not been included in the flu vaccine since 1968, and anyone born after that date has no immunity to it.

Almost 99% of the labs that got the test kits are in the US, Stohr said. Fourteen were in Canada and 61 samples went to labs in 16 other countries in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and South America, according to the WHO.

The test kits are used for internal quality control checks to demonstrate that a lab is able to correctly identify viruses or as a way for labs to get certified by the College of American Pathologists.

Stohr said the test kits are not the only supplies of the 1957 pandemic strain sitting in laboratories around the world.

“The world really has to think what routine labs should be doing with these samples they have kept in the back of their fridges,” Storh said.

Viruses are classed according to the level of lab safety precautions that must be taken when handling them. Routine viruses can be handled in labs with a basic level of biosafety protection.

However, very dangerous viruses, such as Ebola, can only be handled at labs with top-level safety measures. Those labs have a biosafety level of 4.

The 1957 flu virus has for years been a level 2 virus, but many countries have upgraded it to a biosafety level of 3 because so many people have no immunity to it.