Mice infected with Bubonic Plague missing from Lab

[Digbert]

Here's a scary one

Miami, FL (AHN) - The frozen remains of two mice infected with the bubonic plague are missing from a New Jersey bioterror research facility, and the facility waited seven weeks to report the incident to federal and state authorities. Officials with the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in Newark, where the remains went missing, and FBI officials, said the missing mice pose no public health threat.

This is the same facility where three live plague-inflected mice went missing in September 2005. Officials concluded those mice died.

The frozen mice were noticed missing when an animal care supervisor went to prepare them for sterilization and incineration, the New Jersey Star-Ledger reported. University officials still think the remains were incinerated earlier, but lack the records to prove it.

University officials say they contacted the FBI, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state health officials when they realized the dead mice were unaccounted for.

Source: allheadlinenews

[D.B. Cooper]

The disease is easily curable though these days right? Even so, the symptoms aren't pretty .

[C-Rob]

Isn't bubonic plague curable now though? So even if it was stolen in the wish to infect people with it, it woudlnt' matter? And it's not like anyone kills cats just for fun any more either, which was how the desease spread into a plague in the first place.

[Digbert]

Isn't bubonic plague curable now though? So even if it was stolen in the wish to infect people with it, it woudlnt' matter? And it's not like anyone kills cats just for fun any more either, which was how the desease spread into a plague in the first place.

Yes I think its pretty curable but that's not the scary part is read a bit further into the article. The fact these mice were stolen from a bioterror research facility is just insane also they could of been working with a resist strain of the virus and here's the best bit it took them SEVEN YES SEVEN WEEKS to report the incident to the FBI

[Copperknickers II]

Bubonic plague has frequent outbreaks. It is not like smallpox, that doesn't exist anymore, it is pretty common in Asia and is easily treatable with antibiotics. Besides, there are worse varieties of plague.

[Bernem]

these mice are pretty sneaky and pretty fast. once one has escaped and hidden succesfully you don't have another choice than to gasificate the whole room

[Steel of Fury]

One wonders...

[Lord Feloric's Ambassador]

One wonders why Human scientists are keeping a rodent infected with the worst plague in Human history. My Lord believes once a disease has run its course all remains of it should be eradicated.

[Thanatos]

One wonders why Human scientists are keeping a rodent infected with the worst plague in Human history. My Lord believes once a disease has run its course all remains of it should be eradicated.

That's dangerous. Take smallpox for example. If you were to unleash it on people today, you'd get disastrous results. This situation is made worse by the fact that both Russia and the USA have a few samples left of smallpox culture.

At any rate, the human body needs foreign invaders to build up an immune system. If you get rid of all traces of a virus/bacteria, that's just one more way the immune system is unprotected.

[ColdFire]

One wonders why Human scientists are keeping a rodent infected with the worst plague in Human history. My Lord believes once a disease has run its course all remains of it should be eradicated.

I thought Spanish flu killed more, but I suppose that was mostly due to the population being so much higher. I guess that Black Plague was the most desvestating in history.

Also, surely we should be samples of it, so we can research cures and other developments.

[Ummon]

Now, an antibiotic-immune Yersinia Pestis equals a worldwide disaster. Pray and beg this isn't a terrorist action.

[Copperknickers II]

Now, an antibiotic-immune Yersinia Pestis equals a worldwide disaster. Pray and beg this isn't a terrorist action.

I don't really care if its terrorists, they don't know the first thing about epidemiology,unless alqaeda is now a world expert on virology and cell biology on par with the likes of Harvard and the US ministry of defence. Afterall, all previous attempts at biological terrorism have failed miserably (anthrax, plaque, these are just some of the failed biological terror attempts that failed because of the lack of knowledge). It takes more than stealing something from a laboratory and throwing it at some people.

If China or India get shirty and go to war with the west, then i will be afraid.

[Ummon]

What you have to do is simply infect animals, let them die, spread carcasses around in some overpopulated third world country, and the world is kaput.

And this is epidemiology.

[Thanatos]

The trick would be to infect the water supply, IMHO, if that was your goal. If you were to infect third world countries as a terrorirst, that'd probably be the easiest way to go about doing it.

[Ishoss]

I wonder, how great is our resistance to the Plague today? I mean, the reason it dissapered was because people got immune. The last outbreak of the plague in Scandinavia was in 1720 iirc, so would we still have great resistance or would it be 1348 all over again?

Or would antibiotic be enough...?

[Ummon]

Yersinia Pestis is a capsulated bacterium: this means immune response is largely inefficacious. Resistance to a pathogen is not an inheritable trait, although HLA antigens which facilitate an immune response have allowed their carriers to survive so I assume today we are slightly better off with it.

Of course, an antibiotic resistant variety in a low hygiene country, would be a catastrophe. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yersinia_pestis

Recently Y. pestis has gained attention as a possible biological warfare agent and the CDC has classified it as category A pathogen requiring preparation for a possible terrorist attack.

Role in Black Death
DNA from Y. pestis has been found in the teeth of an individual who supposedly died from the Black Death, and medieval corpses who died from other causes have tested positive for Y. pestis.[7][8] This suggests that Y. pestis was, at the very least, a contributing factor in some (though possibly not all) of the European plagues. It is possible that the selective pressures induced by the plague might have changed how the pathogen makes itself manifest in humans, selecting against the individuals or populations which were the most susceptible.

Unfortunately, the page has been recently edited in order to make it scarcely believable.

[Marie Louise von Preussen]

Great urban civilizations like ours are always the most vulnerable of all. It took 800 years before the Plague of Justinian was equalled by the Black Death, a quite formidable amount of time when rural population was overwhelmingly dominant. Disease could kill smaller communities but their degree of isolation and their scattered geography prevented major outbreaks.

[MrMofo]

also there's the theory that the bubonic plague wasn't really the cause of all the death that is attributed to it, but that anthrax was its silent partner. This is based on population studies at the time, and the fact that death rates didn't decline during the winter months when the disease should have been dormant (anthrax is transmitted through cows who'd often be penned up nearby and in close contact with humans/ rats.)

No anthrax mice/cows escaped, so i'd say we're marginally safer

[Holger Danske]

Woow, just imagine if they where infected with Rage... Rofl, bye America..

[Markas]

Woow, just imagine if they where infected with Rage... Rofl, bye America..

Yeah I hear those Mice can bite real hard.