On Monday, December 9, 2024, the government of Queensland, an Australian state, announced that hundreds of samples of the deadly virus are missing from a laboratory in Australia. An investigation has been launched into this incident, which is described as an unacceptable breach of security measures. This serious situation, which is far from being an isolated case, raises serious concerns about the management and monitoring of pathogens in these biomedical structures which must always respect strict standards to prevent any risk of leak or malicious use. .
An unexplained disappearance of viruses
The local government has ordered Queensland Health, Australia's public health department, to investigate what is being described as a ” serious historical violation of biosecurity protocols ”, according to a press release published online. It has indeed been reported that 323 vials containing various infectious viruses had gone missing from the Queensland Public Health Virology Laboratory in 2021 (the breach was not discovered until August 2023).
The laboratory where these samples disappeared provides “ diagnostic, monitoring and research services for medically important viruses, mosquito- and tick-borne pathogens ”, according to the press release. We still don't know at the moment whether the infectious samples were removed, stolen or destroyed.
However, an investigation was opened to determine how these viruses disappeared and why the violation was not discovered for almost two years. « With such a serious breach of biosecurity protocols and potentially missing infectious virus samples, Queensland Health must investigate what happened and how to prevent it from happening again », Estimates Minister Timothy Nicholls in the press release. The investigation “ will ensure that no stone was left unturned in the handling of this incident and will review the current policies and procedures in effect at the laboratory today ».
Nicholls added that Queensland Health had taken “ proactive measures “, notably by organizing new staff training on the regulations in force and carrying out audits to ensure proper storage of materials. However, the only information currently available about the missing viruses is that the incident occurred when a freezer containing the samples broke.
Dangerous viruses
Among the missing bottles, some contain really dangerous viruses. Nearly 100 missing vials contain the deadly Hendra virus. Two vials contain hantavirus, while 223 vials contain samples of lyssavirus (which includes the rabies virus). These three pathogens can cause very high mortality rates in humans as well as animals and livestock.
Hendra virus primarily infects horses, but it has the capacity to transmit to humans where it presents a mortality rate estimated at 57%. Hantavirus is another zoonotic virus (transmitted by animals, especially rats). In humans, it causes hantavirus pulmonary syndrome characterized by fever, chills, nausea, diarrhea and filling of the lungs with fluid. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), this infection is fatal in 38% of symptomatic cases. Finally, once symptoms of a lyssavirus infection appear, there is no known treatment and the outcome is almost always fatal, causing approximately 59,000 human deaths each year in the world.
Apparently no immediate risk
The press release states that there is no no evidence of risk to the public. Viruses indeed depend on a host for their survival and most of them have a limited lifespan in the environment. To maintain infectious stocks in laboratories, they must either be grown in cells or stored at ultra-low temperatures. Also, if these vials were not in an ultra-low temperature freezer (-80°C, while a typical home freezer reaches -20°C), viruses could not survive at this temperature and would deteriorate quicklylosing their infectious character in a few days.
In theory, a person exposed to the contents of a bottle could therefore indeed be infected, but only immediately after removing from the freezer. Given the limited ability of these pathogens to transmit from person to person, the risk of an outbreak is also very weak.
However, the authorities do not know what happened to the samples. It is therefore possible that they are still in good condition… somewhere. Fortunately, no human cases of Hendra or lyssavirus have been reported in Queensland in the past five years and no hantavirus infections have ever been confirmed in Australia. Despite the low risk, officials hope to understand where these samples ended up to ensure there truly is no further risk of exposure.
A not isolated incident
This incident in Australia is not not an isolated case. Laboratories that handle pathogens with a high infectious risk have also experienced other failures around the world, including in France. In 2014, the Pasteur Institute, for example, reported the loss of 2,349 tubes containing fragments of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virusalthough the authorities claimed that these samples did not present a direct infectious risk.
These incidents highlight the limitations of biosafety systemseven in the most reputable facilities that are not 100% protected from human errors, technical malfunctions and sometimes lack of compliance with protocols. Finally, they recall the crucial importance of strengthening biosafety and closely monitoring practices in the laboratories in question.
