Reportedly, if the virus samples were mismanaged in any way, they would swiftly decay outside of low-temperature freezers, rendering them non-infectious. However, if frozen, that's another story.
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An academic institution in Queensland, Australia, appears to have lost over 300 deadly virus samples.
VICE reported that what is more troubling is that this breach occurred in 2021, was not discovered until August 2023, but has only now been made public knowledge.
Among the over 300 missing viral samples are:
Hantavirus, a disease begins as a flu-like sickness and may proceed to shock, bleeding, and renal failure.
Hendra virus. "This is an infection is a rare emerging zoonosis (disease that can be transmitted to humans from animals) that causes severe and often fatal disease in both infected horses and humans. The natural host of the virus has been identified as being fruit bats," said the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Lyssavirus. This virus causes the disease rabies, which is a fatal encephalitic disease resulting in approximately 59,000 human deaths annually. Early symptoms are flu-like and can include fever, headache and fatigue.
But, with this virus, symptoms rapidly escalate to muscular weakness, sensory alterations, disorientation, convulsions, and loss of consciousness.
The Australian bat lyssavirus infection is virtually invariably lethal, with death generally happening within one to two weeks of symptom onset.
Reportedly, if the virus samples were mismanaged in any way, they would swiftly decay outside of low-temperature freezers, rendering them non-infectious. However, if frozen, that's another story.
"If someone stole one and kept it in their hot car for a bit instead of immediately putting it in a freezer, for instance, it would be rendered inert. For now, that's just wishful thinking since officials have no idea what happened to them," said VICE.
The government has directed Queensland Health to initiate a probe into what's being characterised as an unprecedented breach of biosecurity protocols.
"With such a serious breach of biosecurity protocols and infectious virus samples potentially missing, Queensland Health must investigate what occurred and how to prevent it from happening again.
“The investigation will ensure nothing has been overlooked in responding to this incident and examine the current policies and procedures in operation today at the laboratory," said the country's health minister Tim Nicholls.
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