The Hindu : International : Asian nations destroy virus

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 15, 2005

International

International

Asian nations destroy virus

TOKYO: Asian countries on Thursday moved quickly to eradicate their stocks of a deadly flu strain that was sent mistakenly by a U.S. company, with Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong confirming that most vials had been destroyed.

Health officials said there were no reports of infections.

The U.N. World Health Organisation recommended this week that laboratories in 18 countries holding samples of the H2N2 influenza strain properly dispose of them. Meridian Bioscience Inc. of Newtown, Ohio, had mistakenly sent the virus strain to nearly 5,000 laboratories, mostly in the United States, after being asked by the College of American Pathologists to prepare quality-control kits for distribution.

By Thursday, 15 laboratories in Taiwan, two in Singapore and one in Hong Kong had destroyed the virus, officials said. An official at South Korea's Centre for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed that all samples had been disposed of by Wednesday morning and that WHO had been notified, but would not offer specifics about the laboratories.

In Japan, eight of nine laboratories said they had followed the Health Ministry's order to dispose of the samples, or were in the process of doing so. The remaining laboratory refused to comment. — AP

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