3 Vials of Virus Missing From Fort Detrick, The US Army's Primary Biodefence Resarch Facility

News Type: Event — Seeded on Thu Apr 23, 2009 9:41 AM EDT

Article Source: CNN

us-news, virus, fort-detrick, bioweapons, biosecurity, ft-detrick, usamrid, biodefence, venezuelan-equine-encephalitis

Missing vials of a potentially dangerous virus have prompted an Army investigation into the disappearance from a lab in Maryland.

The Army's Criminal Investigation Command agents have been visiting Fort Detrick in Frederick, Maryland, to investigate the disappearance of the vials. Christopher Grey, spokesman for the command, said this latest investigation has found "no evidence of criminal activity."

The vials contained samples of Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis, a virus that sickens horses and can be spread to humans by mosquitoes. In 97 percent of cases, humans with the virus suffer flu-like symptoms, but it can be deadly in about 1 out of 100 cases, according to Caree Vander Linden, a spokeswoman for the Army's Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. There is an effective vaccine for the disease and there hasn't been an outbreak in the United States since 1971.

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{"commentId":6655019,"authorDomain":"killfile"}

Killfile

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and suggest that things really shouldn't going missing from Fort Detrick. I'd be happier with the United States losing track of nuclear weapons than some of the things they keep in there.

The particular bug in this case - Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis - isn't going to cause a global pandemic or anything like that. This isn't The Stand or anything like that... at least not unless you're a horse... but it's a nasty little bug and it does have a human vector so there is that.

It does make me take notice, however, as there's another very like named disease that's been known to kick around US research facilities in the past which is (if memory serves) African Swine Encephalitis.

And while that's not "end of the world" stuff either it does have an hemorrhagic component which means an outbreak would look a lot like something out of an Edgar Allen Poe story.

Here's hoping it's just a clerical error.

{"commentId":6655019,"threadId":"561139","contentId":"2722712","authorDomain":"killfile"}

1 vote

#1 - Thu Apr 23, 2009 9:48 AM EDT

{"commentId":6655942,"authorDomain":"factcheckme"}

factcheckme

should i read the article before i make the tenative connection, aloud, with the 21 race horses that mysteriously, simultaneously died this week?

guess i will read it and find out....

{"commentId":6655942,"threadId":"561139","contentId":"2722712","authorDomain":"factcheckme"}

#1.1 - Thu Apr 23, 2009 10:22 AM EDT

{"commentId":6662552,"authorDomain":"heartland"}

justmy2centsworth

This is very disturbing to me. What if there are other unaccounted for vials of virus floating around? Not good.

{"commentId":6662552,"threadId":"561139","contentId":"2722712","authorDomain":"heartland"}

2 votes

#2 - Thu Apr 23, 2009 2:10 PM EDT

{"commentId":6717122,"authorDomain":"fun-2"}

rob32

yes but look at the news now..... was it really that or this swine/bird flu junk?

{"commentId":6717122,"threadId":"561139","contentId":"2722712","authorDomain":"fun-2"}

1 vote

#3 - Sun Apr 26, 2009 4:15 PM EDT

{"commentId":6835617,"authorDomain":"james-32"}

AJ-825063

This misses the obvious though.

Those 3 vials likely have nothing to do with this.

US Military announced it was recreating the Spanish Flu in 2003. Dr. Jeffrey Taubenberger of the US Armed Forces Institute of Pathology publically announced we had succeeded and furthered experiments mixing it with other flus.

That is exactly what this is, the Spanish Flu of 1918, which the military recreated and mixed with other flus.

There is no difference between this new flu and the military's experiments.

The were supposedly manufacturing it and blending it with other flus to create pandemic vaccines.

So now that we have a flu that is just like the one they created, where is their vaccine? Why are they acting like the project doesn't even exist now, when they were so proud of it for years? This has the genetic signatures of the Spanish Flu blended with others, just like theirs. Certainly their research has something to say about it.

I'd rather think it was the project that looks, smells and quacks just like this virus than the three missing vials that could have been anything.

{"commentId":6835617,"threadId":"561139","contentId":"2722712","authorDomain":"james-32"}

1 vote

#4 - Fri May 1, 2009 2:51 PM EDT

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KILLFILE

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3 Vials of Virus Missing From Fort Detrick, The US Army's Primary Biodefence Resarch Facility

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	Army: 3 vials of virus samples missing from Maryland facility	CNN	Thu Apr 23	1
	Army: 3 missing disease samples likely destroyed	Associated Press	Thu Apr 23	1