Even the CDC makes mistakes.
According to an internal investigation for the agency, sloppy lab practices may have been the reason behind a cross-contamination between a benign bird flu virus and a dangerous one that can kill people.
The investigation found numerous lapses in biosafety including the possibility that both strains of bird flu were handled in the same biosafety cabinet at the same time. This could cause a serious cross-contamination of the specimens.
This investigation came after the CDC experienced some issues when the chickens they were working with became very ill and died, something that shouldn't have happened with the benign strain researchers thought they were working with.
The strain was sent to another CDC lab where it also continued to be used because no one alerted them to the problem they were facing.
The CDC was also planning on sending the sample to the infectious disease department at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
There was a six-week delay between its discovery and notification to CDC officials.
Luckily, the scientists working with the strain handled it with the same precautions as they would the more dangerous strain. If it spread to flocks outside the lab, it would cause many chicken deaths and the virus could also cause severe and fatal illnesses in people.
The CDC said when the samples were sent to the lab to be worked with, the entire procedure should have taken 90 minutes if all precautions were taken - 30 minutes of which would have been needed just to clean the biosafety cabinet in preparation for the next specimen. The logs showed that only 51 minutes elapsed between the time the scientist accessed the specimen and the time he signed out of the suite.
"We were very lucky, in this episode, there was no risk to human health," said Anne Schuchat, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. "But being lucky with that doesn't mean we're not taking these seriously."
The CDC is double checking all cultures and preparations done by the scientist involved in the cross-contamination incident.
It is also one of several serious issues the CDC has faced over safety and security lapses at federal research labs. Other issues include vials of smallpox left out on work benches and issues of mishandling live anthrax spores.
Schuchat said while they are holding the scientists accountable, the system also needs to be one of redundancy with several layers in case of mistakes.
