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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating the discovery of vials labeled “smallpox” at a lab in Pennsylvania, the health agency said on Thursday.
CDC spokesperson Belsie González said in an email Thursday that the frozen vials were “discovered by chance by a lab worker while cleaning the freezer at a vaccine research facility in Pennsylvania.”
He added that the CDC is working with law enforcement to investigate the bottles. The agency said the bottles looked sturdy.
“The lab worker who discovered the bottles was wearing gloves and a face mask,” he said. “There is no indication that anyone has been exposed to the small number of frozen bottles. We will provide more details as they become available.”
The CDC did not say where the bottles were discovered in Pennsylvania or how many.
Mark O’Neill, press secretary for the Pennsylvania Department of Health, said “few bottles” were found at a Merck facility in Montgomery County outside Philadelphia.
Merck did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday. FBI refers investigations to CDC
“The Pennsylvania Department of Health wants to emphasize that there is no known threat to public health and safety,” said Mr O’Neill. “There is no indication that anyone has been exposed to a small number of frozen vials labeled as ‘smallpox,’ as the CDC references.”
Kelly Cofrancisco, spokesperson for the Montgomery County Office of Communications, said there were a total of “15 suspected vials”, five of which were labeled “smallpox” and 10 “vaccine”, citing a notification from the state department of health.
Smallpox, an infectious disease caused by the Variola virus, has caused devastating epidemics for centuries, with about three out of 10 cases proven fatal. CDC
Symptoms include a very high fever and a progressive, blistering skin rash.
According to the World Health Organization, the virus claimed the lives of 300 million people in the 20th century.
In the event of an outbreak, the CDC said, “There is enough smallpox vaccine available to vaccinate every person in the United States.”
The agency said the last natural smallpox epidemic in the United States was in 1949. The last known natural case was in Somalia in 1977, according to the WHO.
WHO with CDC in Atlanta and Research center in Russia. That year, six glass vials containing the smallpox virus It was found in a warehouse at a government lab outside Washington. At the time, the CDC said there were no indications that lab workers or the public were exposed to the content.
The CDC said smallpox research in the United States is focused on the development of vaccines, drugs and diagnostic tests to protect people against smallpox if used for bioterrorism.
D., an emergency room physician at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York. Robert Glatter said smallpox can be fatal “even after freeze-drying.”
He said that “the virus itself needs to be kept cold” because of its highly contagious nature. Years later at room temperature, he said, “it is unlikely that the virus will continue its ability to infect humans.”
Dr. Glatter added that there is an ongoing debate over whether governments should keep viral samples or eliminate all known copies of the virus.
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