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Logo of the Umbrella Corporation: Bioengineering company that released a deadly virus in the Resident Evil film series
Logo of the Umbrella Corporation: Bioengineering company that released a deadly virus in the Resident Evil film series
The missing vial, which contains less than a quarter of a teaspoon of an infectious disease, had been stored in a locked freezer designed to handle biological material safely in the Galveston National Laboratory on UTMB's campus, officials said.
During a routine internal inspection last week, UTMB officials realized one vial of a virus called Guanarito was not accounted for at the facility.
Scott Weaver, the laboratory's scientific director, said Guanarito is an emerging disease that has caused deadly outbreaks in Venezuela.
The federal government prioritizes it for research because it has the potential to be used a weapon by terrorists.
On Tuesday, an investigator discovered that only four out of five vials were stored of the virus in the grid system. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was notified immediately.
Wrongdoing unlikely
Lab officials searched but have not been able to locate the other vial.
UTMB said that there was no breach in the facility's security and no indication that any wrongdoing was involved, according to the statement. Weaver said it was possible a vial could have stuck to a figure or a glove and fallen to the floor of the laboratory.
"The only way it could pose a risk is if it were stolen and that's unlikely," Weaver said.
This marks the first time that any vial containing a select agent has been unaccounted for at UTMB, officials said.
"We don't think anything that happened this past week endangers the community," Weaver said. "We think this is an error that any one facility is inevitable and we are going to improve to prevent this in the future."
Officials suspect that the virus was likely destroyed during the normal laboratory decontamination and cleaning process, but the investigation is ongoing.
Venezuelan disease
Weaver said those trusted to use the laboratory go through a rigorous security screening and training program. He said the lab is reviewing the procedures for maintaining inventory records and hope to implement a new system to help eliminate human error from the process, which would use electronically encoded system to automatically check inventory based on the vials' labels.
Guanarito is native only to Venezuela and can cause hemorrhagic fever. The virus is not known to be transmitted person-to-person and poses no public health risk, according to officials. In the limited area of Venezuela where the virus is found, it is transmitted only by rodents native to the area and is not believe to be capable of surviving naturally in rodents in the United States.
Lab opened in 2009
Weaver said Guanarito is probably largely unknown to people in the U.S. and elsewhere, and the federal government does not believe it's one of the most likely viruses sought after by terrorists.
The Galveston National Laboratory has been active since 2009 and the researchers work to control infectious diseases to provide a resource to develop therapies, vaccines and diagnostic tests for naturally occurring emerging diseases as well as microbes that might be employed by terrorists, according to its website.
Guanarito virus causes hemorrhagic fever in Venezuela. This virus inhabits a rodent host, in which it reproduces. It infects humans by contact with the saliva or urine of the infected rodents. Another way to get infected is by inhalation of the virus. The virus then grows in the affected individual's lymph nodes and from there spreads to the rest of the body, causing a viremia. The incubation period is about one to two weeks.
Hematologic Symptoms
The Guanarito virus causes hemorrhagic fever. It does so by causing thrombocytopenia, a condition in which the platelets--the blood cells that help with clotting--are depleted, therefore reducing the body's ability to clot off bleeding. Other effects from the virus that predispose the patient to bleeding include damage to the vascular system (arteries, capillaries and veins) and inability of the platelets that are not destroyed to function properly. Patients with hemorrhagic fever bleed easily and can do so from all mucous membranes, including the eyes, mouth, nose and anus. Injuries and trauma, like cuts and bruises, can also cause heavy bleeding. Patients can also bleed into their heads or into the abdominal cavity, especially if there is trauma to these areas.
White blood cells, which are the cells in charge of fighting off infections, can also be affected by this virus.