Sept. 26th: U.S. tells universities, scientists to flag germ research with biosecurity concerns

The timing of this article and government mandate raised an eyebrow. As I'm scanning the article, I notice links to related stories. One which caught my attention was titled, "Read More: Texas lab loses vial of deadly virus from Venezuela. Given reports about the reluctance to raise alarms about the recent deaths of 10 individuals due to hemorrhagic fever in Venezuela, this peaked my curiosity and I clicked through. At first glance the date of the missing vial report (March 26, 2013) had me less driven to follow through any further because the article stated:

"But don’t panic because Guanarito virus isn’t known to be transmitted from person-to-person, the school statement says. It’s only contracted from rodents in a rare part of Venezuela"

Thinking this had nothing to do with the current alarm bells driven by ebola and the Venezuelan hemorrhagic virus I was about to move on. Curiosity got the better of me so I decided to look for information on the "Guanarito virus".

Lo and behold . . .the very first entry to show up on the search is from wiki titled Venezuelan hemorrhagic fever - Wikipedia, the free ..

The disease is most prevalent in several rural areas of central Venezuela and is caused by the Guanarito virus (GTOV) which belongs to the Arenaviridae family.

How crazy is that? The missing vial from the University of Texas medical lab did contain specimen of a hemorrhagic virus "Guanarito", the etiologic agent of Venezuelan hemorrhagic fever.. 

AND THEN THERE'S THIS:

Missing virus vial raises concerns at UTMB facility 3/24/2013
A vial containing a potentially harmful virus has gone missing from a laboratory at the University of Texas Medical Branch, officials said.

The missing vial, which contains less than a quarter of a teaspoon of an infectious disease, had been stored in a locked freezer designed to handle biological material safely in the Galveston National Laboratory on UTMB's campus, officials said. 

Curious-er and curious-er...

3/26/2013 globalnews.ca

"Weaver said it’s likely the vial stuck to a technician’s glove and fallen onto the floor, he told the newspaper. The university says it believes the vial was destroyed during normal lab sterilization.

“The only way it could pose a risk is if it were stolen and that’s unlikely,” Weaver said. The statement notes that there was no security breach or suspicion of foul play in the incident.

“We don’t think anything that happened this past week endangers the community,” he said."

*******vs.*****

3/26/2013 ABCNews: FBI Gets Case of Missing Virus at Texas Biolab

"The biolab realized the vial went missing on March 21 because it was preparing for its annual CDC inspection for the week of March 25, Weyant said. Prior to the inspection, the CDC visited in January 2012.

The last time the vial was used was November 2012, University of Texas Medical Branch spokesman Raul Reyes told ABCNews.com. The University of Texas Medical Branch owns the $174 million biolab, which was designed with the strictest security measures to hold the deadliest viruses in the country. Only one scientist worked with the virus, and Reyes said the lab suspects that scientist accidentally threw the vial away in November.
[snip]
Kurilla said the Galveston biolab requires the most stringent safety measures because it studies biosafetly level BSL-4 materials, or dangerous infectious diseases that have no vaccines or cures. BSL-4 materials include Guanarit, Ebola and smallpox."

*****vs.*****
March 24, 2013, Chron: Missing virus vial raises concerns at UTMB facility
Wrongdoing unlikely

Lab officials searched but have not been able to locate the other vial.

UTMB said that there was no breach in the facility's security and no indication that any wrongdoing was involved, according to the statement. Weaver said it was possible a vial could have stuck to a figure or a glove and fallen to the floor of the laboratory.

"The only way it could pose a risk is if it were stolen and that's unlikely," Weaver said.

This marks the first time that any vial containing a select agent has been unaccounted for at UTMB, officials said.

"We don't think anything that happened this past week endangers the community," Weaver said. "We think this is an error that any one facility is inevitable and we are going to improve to prevent this in the future."