HEALTH REPORT - Laboratories Destroy Deadly Flu Virus Shippe

HEALTH REPORT - Laboratories Destroy Deadly Flu Virus Shipped by Mistake
By Cynthia Kirk

Broadcast: Wednesday, April 20, 2005

Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Health Report.

 
Deadly flu virus sent in error.
Health officials are investigating how several thousand laboratories worldwide received a deadly influenza¹ virus by mistake. The laboratories normally receive small amounts of viruses to test their equipment. But the virus they received this time killed between one million and four million people in nineteen fifty-seven and fifty-eight.

The virus was sent in testing supplies to four thousand seven hundred laboratories in nineteen countries.

The World Health Organization reported that as of Monday most of the shipments had been destroyed. Eighteen countries had confirmed the destruction of the virus, with the United States expected to join them shortly. Laboratories in the United States had received most of the supplies.

The virus is named h-two-n-two. This so-called Asian flu disappeared in nineteen sixty-eight when new viruses began to spread. Health officials say anyone born since then would have little or no protection against the h-two-n-two virus.

W.H.O. officials say there is a risk that the virus could spread again worldwide if it escaped from a laboratory. But they said the danger of anyone getting sick was low if laboratory workers handled the virus carefully. There were no immediate² reports of any cases of infection.

An American company shipped the virus starting last October. The last shipments were in February. The samples were sent as part of a testing process that measures how well laboratories can correctly identify viruses. The Meridian³ Biosciences company in Ohio shipped the tests for the College of American Pathologists.

Officials of the College of American Pathologists say they did not know that the h-two-n-two virus had been sent out. They say they will be more careful in the future to state exactly which viruses to send to laboratories.

Health officials in Canada informed the W.H.O. on March twenty-sixth that a local laboratory had discovered the deadly flu virus. The United Nations health agency then directed all the laboratories involved to destroy the samples as quickly as possible.

Federal officials in the United States are investigating the incident. And the World Health Organization will propose new safety rules for the handling of this kind of virus in laboratories.

This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. I'm Gwen Outen.

1 influenza   

n.流行性感冒，流感

参考例句：

• They took steps to prevent the spread of influenza.他们采取措施
• Influenza is an infectious disease.流感是一种传染病。

2 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

3 meridian   

adj.子午线的；全盛期的

参考例句：

• All places on the same meridian have the same longitude.在同一子午线上的地方都有相同的经度。
• He is now at the meridian of his intellectual power.他现在正值智力全盛期。