156 reports have emerged of ‘mishaps’ involving bugs since outbreak of Covid, suspected to have originated in a Chinese lab

Laboratory-acquired infections (LAIs) and accidental pathogen escape from laboratory settings (APELS) are major concerns for the community. A risk-based approach for pathogen research management within a standard biosafety management framework is recom...

Policy options for improved safety and security

A series of previously unreported alarms and clashes over US-funded research in China reveal long-standing friction between two groups of government scientists: those who prioritize international collaboration, and those who are kept up at night by the...

Biological facilities in the US and around the world suffer breaches, including of potentially pandemic-causing pathogens, but are shrouded in secrecy

After fears that Covid-19 originated in a lab, virologists and biosafety experts gather in Geneva to discuss how to prevent another pandemic

New book reveals lax oversight and efforts to avoid reporting an accident involving a controversial flu virus at a University of Wisconsin lab.

From Birmingham's smallpox outbreak in the 1970s a Soviet cover up of 'Biological Chernobyl', to extinct polio being found in a Dutch sewer in lab leaks of pathogens are not as rare as you might think.

Though progress has been made against polio, the risk of international spread of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) remains high, and the situation still warrants a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC), the World...

A series of laboratory leaks and risky experiments have taken place since the 1970s.

By the time a researcher who pricked her finger in Missouri reported the accident, she was already sick.

A researcher working with the 1918 flu virus was bit by an infected ferret and sent home to quarantine.

Documents obtained by The Intercept reveal disturbing biosafety lapses and troubling gaps in oversight by government agencies.

The Taiwanese government there has fined an academic institution where a lab worker became infected on the job with COVID-19. She subsequently left work and exposed 110 people to the disease.

A research assistant at an Academia Sinica lab fell ill in November 2021 after working with infected animals

In what may be the first known case of a lab-acquired infection with the novel coronavirus that causes Covid-19, a senior scientist was infected with SARS-CoV-2 in a prestigious laboratory in Beijing in early 2020, according to virologists’ emails obta...

More than a hundred safety breaches have been investigated at UK laboratories that handle dangerous viruses and other pathogens in the past 15 years, records obtained by The Times show.They include a worker at the government’s high security laboratorie...

A 2019 death from variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease was linked to a lab accident; a similar case is now under investigation

From July 24 to August 20, 2019, the Zhongmu Lanzhou biological pharmaceutical factory, which is close to the Lanzhou Veterinary Research Institute, used expired disinfectant in its Brucella vaccine production, leading to the incomplete sterilization o...

n 2003/4, in the wake of the SARS epidemics, there were multiple cases of laboratory acquired infection (LAI) with SARS in just a few…

Reports indicate UNC researchers were potentially exposed to lab-created coronaviruses in several incidents since 2015. These incidents highlight the risks even in the most secure and respected research facilities.

There have been mouse bites and spills and other mishaps during experiments involving genetically altered coronaviruses at a high-security lab at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Even a cursory look at the record shows that these labs, where ever they exist, have a lot of accidents.

The Science and Technology Ministry issued new rules over the weekend, requiring laboratories nationwide to boost their biosafety in a move that experts said could fix chronic inadequate management issues during the campaign against the coronavirus.

Students and staff at two research institutes have tested positive to the Brucella bacterium, which can lead to serious complications.

Chinese media outlets reported 96 cases of brucellosis were confirmed as of December 7, following an outbreak at the Lanzhou Veterinary Research Institute.

The Army’s premier biological laboratory on Fort Detrick reported two breaches of containment earlier this year, leading to the Centers for Disease and Control halting its high-level research.

Concern over a pandemic from a research laboratory release should rival our grave concern over a natural pandemic; the likelihood of both is similar. There is an urgent need for international oversight and regulation of this research. The countries tha...

Research into dangerous viruses and bacteria is important, but for the deadliest pathogens, it’s not clear the benefits are worth the risks.

Mammal-transmissible bird flu research poses a real danger of a worldwide pandemic that could kill human beings on a vast scale.

The White House called for greater transparency about lab incidents. Some call report 'useless.'

In 2014, after a mishap with anthrax, Congress sought an accounting of other CDC incidents.

A USA TODAY investigation discovered hundreds of mishaps at the nation's secretive biolabs.

Blunders led to live anthrax being posted from one lab and holes being found in isolation suits at a facility handling Ebola-infected animals

Recent blunders at federal labs involving anthrax, bird flu are among many nationwide

USDA investigation into the anthrax exposure incident at the CDC turns up other lab safety problems, including carrying hazardous material in Ziplock bags.

Recent safety incidents have put a damper on the CDC's reputation, members of Congress said Wednesday.

USDA inspectors found anthrax stored in unlocked refrigerators, according to House committee.

Recent revelations of safety breaches in the handling of dangerous microbes have created a crisis of faith at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

An unintended anthrax exposure investigation turns up another "distressing" lab safety problem at the CDC.

Government laboratories mishandled deadly microbes in five incidents in the past decade.

After potentially serious accidents involving bird flu and live anthrax, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shut the Atlanta labs and halted shipments of infectious agents.

Six vials of potentially deadly smallpox virus have been discovered in a place they shouldn’t have been: in an unused storage room at an FDA lab.

As many as 86 Atlanta-based workers for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may have been unintentionally exposed to anthrax, the agency says.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is monitoring nine more workers who may have been exposed to anthrax bacteria in its labs, amid new revelations about the potential contamination that triggered its investigation.

As many as 75 scientists may have been exposed to live anthrax bacteria after potentially infectious samples were sent to laboratories unequipped to handle dangerous pathogens, an agency spokesman said.

Government’s public health laboratories’ handling of anthrax called “sloppy” and “inexcusable.”

As report reveals lax standards in Asia-Pacific, researchers debate how to enforce rules.

To reach his office in Galveston National Laboratory, where scientists study deadly pathogens such as the Ebola and Marburg viruses, director James Le Duc swipes his key card at the building's single entrance, which is guarded 24/7 by Texas state police.

The laboratory at the centre of the 2007 foot-and-mouth outbreak has been investigated after "underlying management failings" led to an accident involving

In May a laboratory worker at the University of Kentucky was exposed to the bacterium that causes bubonic plague when an autoclave bag leaked. Two months later, a researcher at the University of Chicago was stuck with a syringe containing the bacterium...

Hundreds of universities and labs have joined the study of toxic microbes. Since 2003, there have been 111 accidents.

A government-run research facility was the source of the virus that crippled the UK's farming industry last month, say officials

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) yesterday released a lengthy list of safety violations it found in an investigation of a biodefense laboratory at Texas A&M University, where research on dangerous path...

How safe are our microbiology labs?

Outbreak appears limited, scientists say--but the safety debate may not be

Foot and mouth disease in Surrey cattle looks more and more likely to have come from the Pirbright research site.   The Mail on Sunday reports that

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has suspended all biodefense research at Texas A&M University, citing the university’s failure to report the accidental exposure of four researchers to highly dangerous diseases. The announcement, made las...

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Jun 30 ordered a biodefense research laboratory at Texas A&M University to stop all work on select agents and toxins while the CDC investigates reports of lab worker...

Research on potential bioweapons halted after unreported lab exposures come to light

The World Health Organization has confirmed that breaches of safety procedures on at least two occasions at one of Beijing's top virology laboratories were the probable cause of the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) there last month,...

A case of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in a male laboratory worker in Taiwan has prompted concern over the role of laboratory material in the spread of the disease.

New case in Taiwan highlights risk of outbreaks from lab accidents

Panel recommends beefing up biosafety procedures at Singapore lab.

An international review panel has concluded that the Singapore man who had the world's first new SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) case since the end of the outbreak probably acquired the virus in a government...