Deadly Flu Strain Shipped Worldwide

The 3,700 samples were sent out beginning last fall, primarily to labs in the United States, although 14 were in Canada and 61 were in 16 other countries, Stohr said.

"The people who are handling this are extremely experienced in dealing with potentially dangerous pathogens, and we have no reason to believe that there were any breaches," Rutz said. "But there's always a concern about a virus to which a sizable part of the population has no immunity, and we're interested in seeing to it that it's neutralized as quickly as possible."

_____Influenza_____ Q. What is the flu? A. A viral respiratory infection. Symptoms include headaches, dry cough, muscle aches and fatigue, and possible congestion, sore throat and fever. Q. How do you treat the flu? A. Rest, drink plenty of fluids and avoid alcohol and tobacco. Since the flu is a virus, antibiotics can't cure it. Q. Who should get a flu vaccine? A. People older than 65, children 6 to 23 months old, pregnant women and adults or children with chronic health conditions are at greater risk for severe illness. • From The Post: Flu Q & A _____On the Web_____ • Flu Vaccine Locator • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention • Global Influenza Surveillance _____Flu News_____ • Flu Season Arrives, Late but Potent (The Washington Post, Feb 11, 2005) • Health Groups Now Worry About Flu Shot Surplus (The Washington Post, Jan 28, 2005) • Flu-Shot Confusion (The Washington Post, Jan 25, 2005) • Flu Special Report

The mistake came to light March 25 when the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, Manitoba, identified the virus. "They were doing this routine testing and identified this virus and said, 'This shouldn't be here,' " Rutz said. Canadian officials notified WHO and the CDC on Friday.

"We have requested that additional measures be taken -- that the laboratories have to acknowledge receipt of the message in written form, to confirm that they have destroyed any of these samples, and that they would monitor their laboratory staff for any respiratory disease," Stohr said.

Robert G. Webster, a flu expert at St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, called the incident "a terrible, terrible mistake."

"I have been telling WHO for a number of years that this is a dangerous virus that is still out there in more labs than they know," he said. "This may alert WHO and Homeland Security and whoever wants to know that each and every H2N2 sample from 1957 needs to be rounded up and locked down."

Neither the College of American Pathologists nor Meridian Bioscience was aware that the virus being shipped was the deadly 1957 strain, said Jared Schwartz, a pathologist and spokesman for the college. The college asked the company to ship a Type A strain of virus, he said, and Meridian's paperwork indicated that this strain was benign.

"For reasons I don't understand and Meridian doesn't understand, the documentation they had was incorrect," he said, adding that the source of the mislabeling was unclear.

Meridian may have obtained the strain from another company that had misidentified it, he said. Even had Meridian known it was the deadly H2N2 strain, Schwartz said, current federal guidelines would have allowed the company to ship it. He said that neither the college nor the company was aware CDC was considering whether to reclassify the strain as too deadly to ship.

Schwartz said a mechanism is being established to require anyone shipping pathogens to notify the CDC about what strains of virus are involved.

William J. Motto, chairman and chief executive of Meridian Bioscience, said he had no comment last night.

Staff writer David Brown and research editor Lucy Shackelford contributed to this report.