EBN- The Australian government has instructed the Queensland Department of Health to launch an investigation into what it describes as a “significant, historic breach of biosecurity protocols”.
It was reported that 323 vials of multiple infectious viruses – including Hendra virus, lyssavirus and hantavirus – went missing from the Queensland Public Health Virology Laboratory in August 2023.
Reports indicated that Hendra virus is a zoonotic virus (transmitted from animals to humans) that has been discovered only in Australia.
Hantavirus is a family of viruses that can cause serious illness and death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, while lyssavirus is a group of viruses that can cause rabies.
The Australian government statement said it was not known whether the infectious samples were stolen or destroyed, and there was “no evidence of a risk to the community”, adding that it had launched an investigation into the incident.
“With such a serious breach of biosecurity protocols and the loss of infectious virus samples, Queensland Health must investigate what happened and how to prevent it from happening again,” Minister Timothy Nicholls said in the statement.
Nicholls added that Queensland Health had taken “proactive measures”, including retraining staff on the required regulations and conducting audits to ensure materials were stored correctly.
Sam Scarpino, director of the Department of Artificial Intelligence and Life Sciences at Northeastern University in Boston, said the situation in Australia amounted to a “serious lapse in biosecurity.”
Scarpino noted similar gaps in biosecurity in the United States.
“The pathogens that have been reported missing are all potentially serious and could pose a threat to the public,” he told Fox News.
All three pathogens can have very high mortality rates in humans, but they are not easily transmitted from person to person, Scarpino added.
“Some hantaviruses have mortality rates of up to 15%, or more than 100 times more deadly than COVID-19, while others are similar to COVID-19 in severity,” he said.
He added that there is also a significant risk to animals and livestock from all three pathogens, but stressed that “given the limited ability of any of these pathogens to be transmitted from person to person, the risk of a pandemic is very low.”
The country’s chief health officer, Dr John Gerrard, confirmed in a media statement that there was no evidence of a general risk.
“It is important to note that virus samples degrade very quickly outside of a low-temperature refrigerator and become non-infectious,” he said.
