Hundreds of samples of three viruses have gone lacking from a Queensland laboratory.
About 323 samples of Hendra virus, Lyssavirus and Hantavirus are nonetheless unaccounted for after going lacking from Queensland’s Public Health Virology Laboratory in August 2023.
The lab has been unable to verify if the viruses have been taken from safe storage or destroyed.
‘With such a critical breach of biosecurity protocols and infectious virus samples doubtlessly lacking, Queensland Health should examine what occurred and the right way to stop it from occurring once more,’ Health Minister Tim Nicholls advised the Courier Mail.
Retired Supreme Court Justice Martin Daubney will lead an Investigation into how the pattern went lacking.
Mr Julian Druce, who was beforehand head of the Virus Identification Lab on the Victorian Infectious Disease Reference Laboratory, has been appointed as co-investigator.
Mr Nicholls mentioned the Health Department have suggested him measures have been taken to make sure such a factor doesn’t occur once more.
Samples of Hendra virus, Lyssavirus and Hantavirus went lacking from Queensland’s Public Health Virology Laboratory in August 2023 and nonetheless haven’t been discovered
Those measures embody retraining employees to make sure compliance with laws and an audit of all related permits to make sure accountability and proper storage of supplies.
Queensland Chief Health Officer John Gerrard mentioned the chance to Queenslanders from the apparently misplaced samples was minimal.
‘It’s troublesome to conceive of a state of affairs whereby the general public could possibly be in danger,’ Dr Gerrard mentioned.
‘It’s essential to notice that virus samples would degrade very quickly exterior a low temperature freezer and turn into non-infectious.
‘It’s most definitely that the samples have been destroyed by autoclaving as is routine laboratory follow and never adequately recorded.
‘It’s not possible that samples have been discarded basically waste as this could be fully exterior routine laboratory follow.
‘Importantly, no Hendra or Lyssavirus instances have been detected amongst people in Queensland over the previous 5 years, and there have been no reviews of Hantavirus infections in people ever in Australia.’
