In another sector, more incompetence as *live* anthrax
is sent to vaccine researchers, who ordered dead
bacteria to work with.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5189023/
[entire article]
"Anthrax vaccine researchers at a hospital near San
Francisco have been exposed to the potentially lethal
bacterium and are being treated with antibiotics, a
hospital spokeswoman said Thursday.  The five
researchers have not shown signs of infection, said
Bev Mikalonis, a spokeswoman for Children�s Hospital
in Oakland, California.

"The hospital believes they were exposed because of a
shipping error at the laboratory that supplied the
anthrax, but is unclear how they acquired a live
version of the bacterium instead of the dead version
they ordered, said Mikalonis.  The researchers had
assumed they were handling a dead version in liquid
form during experiments on mice. After mice injected
with the anthrax began to die on Monday, California
officials were contacted to investigate and they
confirmed the mice had been injected with a live
version.

"The Federal Bureau of Investigation�s bioterrorism
unit has removed the anthrax from the hospital�s
vaccine research institute, and the Centers for
Disease Control is investigating the incident,
Mikalonis said."  

This is a serious breach of checks and safeguards that
ought to ensure that live virulent pathogens are only
sent to legitimate labs (this was a legit lab); a
simple "Live Bacteria - Biohazard!" sticker on the
vials would have been sufficient to alert the
researchers to the error.

Debbi
>From The *Which* Leg Were We Supposed To Amputate?!
Files Maru  >:/


        
                
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