Hundreds of Vials of Deadly Viruses Missing After Lab Breach

Hundreds of vials containing live viruses have gone missing from a laboratory in Australia, sparking an investigation.

Queensland Health Minister Tim Nicholls announced today that 323 samples of live viruses—including Hendra virus, Lyssavirus and Hantavirus—went missing in 2021 in a "serious breach of biosecurity protocols."

The breach was discovered in August 2023, with nearly 100 of the missing vials containing Hendra virus, which is deadly. Two of the vials contained hantavirus, while 223 vials contained samples of lyssavirus.

Hendra virus was first discovered in the mid-1990s after infecting and killing several horses in Australia. Only a handful of humans have caught the disease after being infected by horses, but a large proportion of infected people died.

"Hendra virus has a 57 percent fatality rate in humans and has had a devastating impact on those who have been infected, their families and on the veterinary and equine industries in areas where the virus spills over," Raina Plowright, a professor at the department of public and ecosystem health at Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine, previously told Newsweek.

Hantavirus is carried by rodents and can cause Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS), which has a mortality rate of around 38 percent, while lyssavirus is similar to rabies and also has a very high mortality rate.

"They are serious viruses of animal origin that can kill humans if they infect them. However, infection generally needs hand-to-mouth contamination, and they do not spread so the risk is limited to direct contacts," Ian Jones, a professor of virology at the University of Reading in the U.K., told Newsweek.

The lab has not been able to conclude if the viruses were destroyed or removed from secure storage, but they do not appear to have been stolen.

"There is nothing to suggest that these have been taken from the laboratory. Secondly […] we don't have any evidence that Hendra virus has been weaponized in any way in any research laboratory," Nicholls said at a press conference.

"Of course, all this kind of research is taken in secret, but we are not aware that this has been weaponized in any way. The process of weaponizing a virus is very sophisticated, and is not something an amateur does."

The samples appear to have gone unaccounted for after a freezer they were being stored in at Queensland's Public Health Virology Laboratory broke down.

"It's this part of the transfer of those materials that is causing concern," Nicholls said, as reported by local news ABC.

"They were transferred to a functioning freezer without the appropriate paperwork being completed. The materials may have been removed from that secure storage and lost, or otherwise unaccounted-for."

According to a statement from the Queensland government, there is "no evidence of risk to the community from the breach," as the viruses would have degraded very quickly and subsequently become harmless to humans.

"It's difficult to conceive of a scenario whereby the public could be at risk," Queensland Chief Health Officer John Gerrard said in the statement.

"It's important to note that virus samples would degrade very rapidly outside a low temperature freezer and become non-infectious.

Gerrard notes that the samples were incredibly unlikely to have been thrown away in geeral waste, and were probably destroyed in an autoclave as per usual lab protocol.

"Importantly, no Hendra or Lyssavirus cases have been detected among humans in Queensland over the past five years, and there have been no reports of Hantavirus infections in humans ever in Australia," Gerrard explained.

Andrew Preston, a professor of microbial pathogenesis at the U.K.'s University of Bath, agreed.

"Viruses rely on being in a host for their survival. Most viruses have very limited survival times in the environment. To maintain infectious stocks in labs, they either have to be growing in cells or preserved at ultra-low temperatures," Preston told Newsweek.

"If these vials were not in an ultra-low temp freezer, minus 80 degrees C [minus 112 F], a typical domestic freezer is minus 20 degrees C, the viruses would not last at that temperature, then they will degrade and lose infectiousness quickly, within days."

"In theory, if someone was exposed to the content of a vial, then they would be at risk of infection, but only during the time immediately after they were out of the freezer."

An investigation into the breach has been initiated, which hopes to find out exactly how these viruses went missing and what prevented the discovery of the breach for nearly two years.

"With such a serious breach of biosecurity protocols and infectious virus samples potentially missing, Queensland Health must investigate what occurred and how to prevent it from happening again," Nicholls said in the statement.

"The Part 9 Investigation will ensure nothing has been overlooked in responding to this incident and examine the current policies and procedures in operation today at the laboratory," he said.

"I'm advised Queensland Health has taken proactive measures since discovering the breaches including retraining staff to ensure ongoing compliance with required regulations and an audit of all relevant permits to ensure accountability and correct storage of materials."

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Update 12/11/2024 12:45 p.m. ET: This story has been updated with comments from Ian Jones and Andrew Preston.