Health
H2N2 flu virus update
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted May 23, 2005
As of May 3, all samples of the potentially dangerous H2N2 influenza virus that in recent months were sent to thousands of laboratories in 18 countries have been accounted for and destroyed, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
No reports of illnesses were linked with possible exposure to the samples in the labs, the CDC said.
The virus, which was responsible for the pandemic flu outbreak of 1957, has not circulated since 1968, which means that most people would have little or no immunity to it.
The samples were sent by Meridian Bioscience of Cleveland on behalf of the College of American Pathologists as part of a kit used in lab proficiency testing.
Also on May 3, the CDC and the National Institutes of Health recommended that labs use stricter safety precautions when handling H2N2 virus samples, specifically, Biosafety Level 3 instead of Level 2 precautions.
A similar recommendation was made for avian influenza viruses and for research on the 1918 pandemic flu virus.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2005/05/23/hlbf0523.htm.
