Could the next pandemic come from within? America suffers dozens of lab leaks every year at dangerous virus hubs, ‘startling’ data shows

America experiences a “surprisingly high” number of laboratory leak incidents each year at top virus labs, data shows – amid calls for centers to reduce the number of experiments conducted on diseases that could cause pandemics.

Official data shows that more than 600 ‘controlled’ pathogens – possibly including anthrax, tuberculosis and Ebola – have been released in the US in the eight years to 2022, amounting to 70 to 100 releases per year.

At least two U.S. workers were infected after “release events” over the past eight years — including the crippling mosquito-borne virus Chikungunya and the bacterial infection Q fever — although no deaths were reported.

Many of the incidents were caused by scientists spilling the contents of test tubes, not wearing safety equipment properly and suffering bites and scratches from infected animals.

The map above shows the locations of BSL4 (blue dots) and BSL3 (red dots) laboratories in the United States. Many are located in urban centers

All were at risk of diseases accidentally entering the community, where the pathogens could cause the next pandemic.

In some cases, diseases were released from the laboratories due to equipment failures or poor practices, such as draining infected monkeys’ blood through plug holes.

Experts said the disturbing numbers, collected by the Federal Select Agents Program (FSAP), were a warning of the dangers posed by experimenting with these viruses.

It comes amid growing suspicion that the Covid pandemic stemmed from a laboratory leak incident at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which was known to be experimenting with coronaviruses at the time.

Dr. Richard Ebright, a microbiologist at Rutgers University in New Jersey, said the data showed the “surprisingly high frequency” of laboratory accidents in the US.

He told DailyMail.com: ‘It also demonstrates the inadequacy of US government oversight of biosafety and the lack of public transparency.

‘Will be an eye-opener for anyone who doesn’t work in the field.’

One of the laboratories that recorded a laboratory leak incident in the past eight years was Fort Detrick in Maryland, where anthrax may have escaped from the boiler rooms.

There are concerns that deadly pathogens could escape from laboratories and cause another pandemic

The top microbiologist also warned that these figures were likely an underestimate because labs that test for other diseases, such as chickenpox, were not required to report accidents in their facilities.

A spokeswoman for the Government Accountability Office in Washington DC, which has been campaigning on the issue for years, warned that safety shortcomings in laboratories “continue to pose a serious threat to humans.”

She told DailyMail.com: ‘We reported and testified to Congress in 2018 that safety deficiencies continue to occur in laboratories across the United States researching dangerous pathogens – such as the Ebola virus and the bacteria that causes anthrax.

‘These pose a serious risk to human, animal and plant health.’

A release incident is defined as when a pathogen – such as a virus – may have escaped outside the primary containment area, such as a test tube or a specially ventilated unit where testing was performed.

Few details were available about individual accidents, such as the pathogen released, how the release occurred, and where it occurred.

Officials are not releasing this information because of perceived “national security risks” to the US.

One of the incidents occurred in September 2016 when a student at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, spent four days wandering around the community after accidentally puncturing safety equipment and her finger with a needle coated with the chikungunya virus before alerting her supervisor. .

The student developed fever, body aches and chills – and was later admitted to hospital where she tested positive for the mosquito-borne disease.

In another case in May 2018, it was revealed that anthrax may have been accidentally released from the boiler room at Fort Detrick, Maryland, and into a nearby river where people were planting lily pads after the room was flooded during a storm.

Concerns were also raised in Louisiana in 2015 that a laboratory had accidentally spread a disease called “Vietnamese Time Bomb Fever” into the local area after monkeys in a colony near the laboratory began testing positive for the disease.

Even more errors came to light in 2014 when vials of viable smallpox viruses were found in an FDA laboratory cold room instead of in the proper security areas.

There are at least seven Biosafety Level Four (BSL4) laboratories in the United States, which are licensed to store and experiment on the most dangerous pathogens known to man.

The US also has dozens of Biosafety Level Three (BSL3) laboratories, where dangerous pathogens are also allowed to be held and experimented on.

Scientists in laboratories have previously described the regulations of these laboratories as ‘patchwork’ and are unsure which authority to report to.

In September 2022, the GAO proposed creating a single authority to oversee the laboratories, in the same way as the nuclear industry – although this recommendation was rejected by the White House.

An October 2023 hearing on the regulation of the laboratories by the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic also revealed gaps in the oversight of these centers.

They concluded: ‘Both members and witnesses noted the lack of clear standards for the design, construction and operation of high-containment laboratories.

‘(This) increases the risk of research-related accidents.’

They called on the US to standardize the regulation of laboratories to prevent further accidents, which could potentially trigger a new pandemic.

Data shows that there are 59 BSL4 laboratories worldwide, almost half of which are in Europe.

The largest in the world was the WIV, which had 10,000 feet of laboratory space, but a larger facility opened in Manhattan, Kansas, last June.

As in the US, a number of laboratory leaks have also occurred abroad.

One of the most notable incidents occurred in Russia, when at least 68 people died in Sverdlovsk near Yekaterinburg, central Russia, after anthrax was accidentally released from a laboratory.

Witnesses described a “big pink cloud” floating in the sky above the laboratory after the accident.

Some scientists also believe that a 1977 release from a laboratory caused a flu pandemic, which started in the old Soviet Union before spreading around the world.

Younger adults became infected with a strain of flu that had not been seen in the wild for decades, prompting theories of a laboratory leak.