Some samples of a potentially deadly flu virus, sent by mistake to thousands of laboratories from October through March, were found last week in FedEx warehouses in Lebanon, Mexico and Chile, a World Health Organization official said Sunday.
Klaus Stöhr, head of WHO's influenza program, said the samples had been safely kept in locked facilities but had not been delivered to labs, for reasons that were not clear.

FedEx spokesman Ryan Furby said Sunday that Mexican customs officers had taken custody of the Mexican package. The package in Lebanon had been forwarded to Air France, he said. No further information was available on the package in Chile.

WHO alerted health authorities last week that samples of the H2N2 flu virus, the strain that caused the pandemic of 1957 that killed at least 1 million people, were included in kits used to test laboratories' proficiency in identifying unlabeled viruses. The kits were sent to about 5,000 labs in 19 countries.

Stöhr said more than 83% of the H2N2 samples had been destroyed by Sunday. The risk of human infection is low and there have been no reports of any.

The mistaken shipments have prompted WHO and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to recommend stricter handling of the virus.

The episode also has raised questions about safeguards for routine shipments of dangerous germs among thousands of labs, companies and hospitals.

Stöhr said the H2N2 virus should not have been used in proficiency tests because it has not circulated anywhere since 1968 so anyone born since then would likely be vulnerable to it.

Stöhr said only about 60 of the samples were sent to labs outside the USA. "Of the 19 countries (to which samples were sent), the USA is the only country where there are still outstanding materials not destroyed," he said.

Lab directors said the samples require careful handling by trained lab workers. "We have protocols to follow when working with any unknown sample, so if they're not following those protocols, they're at risk," said Lou Turner, director of the North Carolina State Laboratory of Public Health in Raleigh.

Most of the kits were sent out on orders by the College of American Pathologists (CAP), which helps labs test their proficiency.

CAP contracted with Meridian Bioscience, a Cincinnati company, to send most of the kits but says it didn't know Meridian included the H2N2 strain. Meridian has said it complied with all regulations.

Meridian then sent specimens of the virus in vials to other companies, which assembled, packed and shipped the test kits. Seracon Diagnostics and Proficiency Testing Services, both of Brownsville, Texas, shipped most of them.

Nicholas Serafy Jr., who heads both companies, said federal shipping regulations were followed. The samples were in vials, placed in plastic bags. They were then wrapped with absorbent and puncture-resistant material. The packages were double-boxed.

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