Real Life can be much more interesting than fiction. Some real life events sound like the first 10 minutes of horror films...
In the non-existent horror film Man-Made Super Flu we discovered that scientists had mutated the H1N1 virus into a more dangerous form. But luckily it was confided to a Level 2 Bio-hazard lab so the horror film nightmare could never happen because labs are so safe...
Cue the Horror Theme Music...
In 1978 the last outbreak of Smallpox was reported when a Medical photographer Janet Parker from the Department of Anatomy at the University of Birmingham Medical School was exposed to Smallpox via the ventilation system from the lab below where it was being studied. Janet's death on September 11 of that year led to changes in the UK in the handling and study of infectious disease, WHO's policy on research and proved that not all lab accidents involving photographers with the surname Parker lead to people gaining super powers.
In 1979, the WHO declared the disease had been eradicated and the argument began whether the final remaining samples should be destroyed or kept for research/safety. Eventually it was decided that Russia would keep a sample and so would the US in highly secure labs.
However in 2014... 6 small vials marked "variola" (another name for smallpox) dating from the 1950s were found in a former NIH lab owned by the FDA since 1972.
Cue the Horror Theme Music...
In 1979, the WHO declared the disease had been eradicated and the argument began whether the final remaining samples should be destroyed or kept for research/safety. Eventually it was decided that Russia would keep a sample and so would the US in highly secure labs.
However in 2014... 6 small vials marked "variola" (another name for smallpox) dating from the 1950s were found in a former NIH lab owned by the FDA since 1972.
Cue the Horror Theme Music...
~ DUG.
No comments:
Post a Comment