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M-O-O-N that spells laugh my ass off
here's the article:
Scientists Scramble to Destroy Vials of 1957 Flu Virus Sent to Thousands of Labs
By EMMA ROSS and MARILYNN MARCHIONE, AP
Apr 13, 2005 — Scientists around the world were scrambling to prevent the possibility of a pandemic after a nearly 50-year-old killer influenza virus was sent to thousands of labs, a decision that one researcher described as "unwise."
Nearly 5,000 labs in 18 countries, mostly in the United States, were urged by the World Health Organization to destroy samples of the dangerous virus because of the slight risk it could trigger a global outbreak. The labs received the virus from a U.S. company that supplies kits used for quality control tests.
"The risk is low and we've taken appropriate action," said Dr. Nancy Cox, chief of the influenza branch at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
Her counterpart at WHO, Klaus Stohr, agreed but said, "If someone does get infected, the risk of severe illness is high, and this virus has shown to be fully transmissible."
The germ, the 1957 H2N2 "Asian flu" strain, killed between 1 million and 4 million people. It has not been included in flu vaccines since 1968, and anyone born after that date has little or no immunity to it.
The WHO said Tuesday that there have been no reports of infections in laboratory workers associated with the distribution of the samples and that "the risk for the general population is also considered low."
Still, the decision to send out the strain was described by Stohr as "unwise" and "unfortunate."
The CDC learned Friday that test kits prepared by Meridian Bioscience Inc. of suburban Cincinnati contained the virus. The company makes kits for at least four groups that help labs do proficiency testing, which involves identifying viruses to check a lab's quality controls or to acquire certification.
The largest of those groups, the College of American Pathologists, said it had sent 3,747 kits to various labs starting last year and ending in February.
Dr. Jared Schwartz, an official with the pathology college, said Meridian was told to pick an influenza sample and chose from its stockpile the deadly 1957 strain, which it had received from a "germ library" in 2000.
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