(AP Photo/Gary Emeigh)Think you've had a bad day at work? Imagine this: A researcher at a private laboratory in Maryland this summer is working with a ferret – designated Ferret No. 992 – that was deliberately infected with the bird flu virus. Except the infected ferret isn't happy, and takes a chunk out of the researcher's right thumb. The worker is sent home and kept quarantined for five days, forced to wear a mask to protect everyone around him.
It really happened, one of more than 100 accidents and lost shipments since 2003 at high-security labs across the United States that handle the world's deadliest germs and toxins. For the first time ever, the Associated Press has obtained confidential reports of accidents submitted to federal regulators. No one died, and officials believe the public was never at risk. But the accidents – involving anthrax, monkeypox, bird flu and plague-causing bacteria at 44 labs in 24 states – reflect poorly on procedures and oversight at the labs. The reports describe workers bitten or scratched by infected monkeys, the ferret and a guinea pig. They also include cases of infected mice that turned up missing: In one case, investigators concluded they must have been cannibalized by their cagemates.
The reports are so sensitive the Bush administration said it was illegal to release them under the Freedom of Information Act, after the AP asked for them. The administration cited an anti-bioterrorism law aimed at preventing terrorists from locating stockpiles of poisons and learning who handles them.
A U.S. House subcommittee in Washington is investigating the accidents, and will conduct an oversight hearing later this week.
To learn more, read the exclusive story by Associated Press reporter Larry Margasak.
--Ted Bridis
(AP Photo/EyePress) 
(AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
