Suara.com – The FBI and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently began investigating frozen bottles labeled ‘smallpox‘ which was found in the refrigerator at laboratory vaccine research Pennsylvania.
according to Live ScienceHowever, there are only two laboratories in the world that are legally allowed to store samples of the deadly virus: the CDC laboratory in Atlanta and the Cold War-era biological weapons laboratory in Russia.
In this new incident, a total of 15 bottles, five labeled ‘pox’ and 10 labeled ‘vaccinia’ were found in a Merck laboratory. Vaccinia is the virus used in the smallpox vaccine.
“There is no indication of people having been exposed to the frozen vial. The laboratory worker who found the vial was wearing gloves and a medical mask,” the CDC said.
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The CDC and its partners and law enforcement are investigating the matter.
“We will provide more details as they become available,” they continued.
This investigation led to the closure of the laboratory. The CDC has taken the bottle to another laboratory for testing on Wednesday (11/17/2021) yesterday.
This isn’t the first time a smallpox bottle has been found in a research lab in 2014, National Institutes of Health employees found six bottles in a storage room.
Smallpox is a highly contagious disease caused by the variola virus. This disease had caused millions of deaths before the campaign vaccination in the 1980s.
“It is one of the most devastating diseases known to mankind,” they continued.
Smallpox is the only infectious disease that has been eradicated, with the last known natural case reported in Somalia in 1977.
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