Pasteur Institute
Luca Borghi / Wikimedia Commons
has been arrested Institut Pasteur? But no! Stories in the press today suggesting that the venerable Paris institution was "closed" and ordered to stop his research have been greatly exaggerated, Pasteur says CEO Christian Bréchot Science insider. "The institute is fully functional," he said.
But Pasteur is facing a public relations fiasco after the discovery, made earlier this year, it can not take into account 2349 vials containing samples from the SARS outbreak in 03. an independent committee has concluded that the risk to public health is zero, and Pastor suspended the search in one of its 18 biosafety level 3 facilities, said Bréchot. But the question led to three investigations and raised questions in the media about the security procedures of the institute.
Today the site Mediapart published fragments of a letter leak written by two french ministers who listed a series of apparent problems in the laboratory. "High probability of [sample] not destruction ordered by managers and untraceable two-month delay in the transmission of information to the responsible authorities, lists authorized persons not initially available, unsecured freezers, no video monitoring, archives are not available during the weekend, "wrote the research and education minister Benoît Hamon and Marisol Touraine, Minister of social Affairs, in a letter Mediapart said was addressed to both government inspectors responsible for investigating the matter.
Pasteur staff discovered that the bottles went missing during a regular inventory of dangerous pathogens in January, said Bréchot. The case was reported to the National Agency for Medicines and safety of healthcare products (ANSM), who inspected the laboratory between 8 and 12 April. April 12, Pastor announced the loss of the bottles to the public in a brief statement. Bréchot also reported the matter to the police, which is conducting its own investigation, and the two ministers sent in their own inspection team. (The Institut Pasteur is a private foundation, but the French government provides nearly 30% of its annual budget.)
Bréchot said that the vials contained the patient's material gathered during the brief worldwide SARS epidemic, including nasal, trachea, and the plasma samples. A major survey of staff and students to find out what happened to the samples was barren. Security measures, it would be very difficult for someone to take them outside the laboratory, said Bréchot, who thinks the most likely explanation is that the samples were accidentally destroyed. "But we do not know how it happened," said Bréchot, "and that is clearly unacceptable."
Although the specimens had left the laboratory, they are harmless, said Bréchot. In the past, all attempts to isolate the SARS virus from the samples failed; what is more, the bottles had already thawed for several days when the freezer where they were stored broke down, which reduces the chances of any survivors the virus, he said. A group of independent experts who reviewed the risks concluded that "infectivity" was "zero," according to the statement of the institute.
Bréchot said the institute currently working with ANSM to review and improve the way it completely handles hazardous agents. "My job as president is to ensure this never happens again," he said.
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