Mon 16 Mar 2009
Source: The Financial Times online [edited]
<http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d7a3e3d6-1237-11de-b816-0000779fd2ac.html>
WHO mulls stricter transport of bio products
--------------------------------------------
Public health officials are studying the need for tighter controls on
the transport of biological products after Baxter, the US
pharmaceutical company, inadvertently supplied samples of the H5N1
bird flu virus to a series of European laboratories. Specialists from
the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the European Centre for
Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) are monitoring the case at a
time of growing concern that existing international rules to minimise
the risks of the spread of pathogens are too weak.
Their scrutiny follows an incident that recently came to light when
samples of H5N1 from Baxter's Austrian labs contaminated batches of
the less harmful H3N2 seasonal flu virus that it was supplying under
a commercial contract to a customer, Avir Greenhills Biotechnology.
A combination of H3N2, which is highly transmissible between humans,
and H5N1, which has killed hundreds of millions of chickens and other
[birds] in recent years, could potentially lead to a mutated virus
that forms the basis of a new human pandemic threatening millions of
lives, according to scientists. Baxter stressed that the H3N2 strain
had been made replication-defective, and was handled in tightly
controlled laboratories purely for experiments, so there was little
chance it could have led to outbreak threatening humans. It also
stressed that all staff potentially exposed were tested and given
antiviral treatment to prevent any infection.
Baxter said the H5N1 samples were provided for its own research into
a pandemic vaccine it is developing, and were from a variant of the
virus identified in Viet Nam and provided to the company by the US
Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. "The material was handled
appropriately in all steps of the process in the right conditions,"
said Chris Bona, a Baxter spokesman. The experimental material was
produced exclusively for laboratory testing, was not used for product
production and was not for use in humans. It somehow mixed with H3N2
before distribution last December [2008] to Avir, and the more potent
virus was detected by a subcontractor in the Czech Republic last
month [February 2009] after it rapidly killed ferrets exposed to the
viruses. Avir had also sent samples to Slovenia and Germany. Mr Bona
stressed that Baxter had since taken corrective preventative actions
and its procedures had been approved by the Austrian authorities.
The incident comes just after the conclusion of an EU-funded project
on biosafety highlighted the need for improvement to national
regulatory frameworks for biosafety and laboratory biosecurity.
--
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail Rapporteur Mary Marshall
[Unfortunately there is no clarification of the basic error:
......."It [H5N1 virus] somehow mixed with H3N2 before distribution
last December [2008] to Avir". This thread is now cut.
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