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Bacteria vials reported missing from US lab
About 30 vials that possibly contain samples of the bacteria that causes bubonic plague were reported missing from a lab at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, a law enforcement official said. The official had few details but said the FBI was trying to determine what had happened to the vials at the Texas facility about 530 kilometres west of Dallas. "Apparently there are about 30 missing," he said. Apparently missing? But the official emphasised that the plague believed to be in the vials could not be used as a weapon of mass destruction. Believed to be in the vials? You don't know where you keep your plague? The vials could possibly kill one person but not a large group of people, he said. Possibly kill? Plague, caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, is usually passed to people from rodents via fleas. It caused huge epidemics in the Middle Ages - notably the Black Death that wiped out up to a third of the population in Europe. It's those little things like the wiping out one third of Europe that kind of get peoples attention. It can take on three forms - bubonic plague, which caused the terrifying black swellings or buboes that gave the Black death its name; pneumonic plague, which is far deadlier and caused when the bacteria are inhaled, and septicemic plague, which is a rare blood infection. Plague is considered a likely bioterrorist agent because it is so easy to prepare and use as a weapon and because it frightens people. Scares the crap out of me. Most likely someone put it in the rear of the fridge behind his lunch, but you would of thought they would keep better track of this stuff. Posted by: Steve 2003-01-15 |
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