Fred Upton (R-Mich.), noting that Frieden had made similar promises to improve safety and accountability in the wake of previous incidents, asked, вЂњWhy should we believe you this time that things are going to be different?вЂќДЄlthough Frieden pointed out that no one had been hurt and that all pathogens were killed in the incidents, he said that was no excuse and vowed to improve the agencyвЂ™s overall safety culture, as well as put in place stronger oversight measures. He called the most recent incident вЂњsloppyвЂќ and вЂњinexcusable,вЂќ saying the agencyвЂ™s labs are supposed to be вЂњthe gold standardвЂќ for the U.S. Subcommittee Chairman Tim Murphy (R-Pa.) said government watchdogs have documented numerous systemic safety lapses over the years. None of those incidents had been previously disclosed. The agency said last week that there had been at least four other incidents in the past decade in which deadly pathogens were mishandled, including one in which employees mistakenly sent a sample contaminated with the deadly H5N1 influenza virus to government researchers in Georgia. The FDA said Wednesday that it is reviewing its safety protocols and digging through all other similar storage rooms, at its headquarters and nationwide, to make sure no more vials are tucked away in forgotten corners.ДЇrieden was summoned to testify before a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee about last monthвЂ™s incident in which more than 80 CDC employees may have been exposed to live anthrax when samples were transferred from one lab to others. 10, 1954 - Frieden said last week, adding that it appeared that whoever left them at NIH вЂњdidnвЂ™t do so out of malice.вЂќ

The smallpox vials were labeled with a date - Feb. The FDA said the collection вЂњwas most likely assembled between 19 when standards for work with and storage of biological specimens were very different from those used today.вЂќ No additional smallpox samples were found. An additional 279 were transferred to the Department of Homeland SecurityвЂ™s National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center in Maryland. вЂњThe reasons why these samples went unnoticed for this long is something that weвЂ™re actively trying to understand,вЂќ said Peter Marks, CBERвЂ™s deputy director, adding that the boxes were in a seldom-accessed storage area.ДЄgency officials said 32 of the samples were destroyed at an NIH facility. No evidence exists that anyone has been exposed to the pathogens, the agency said. The samples were in well-packed, heat-sealed vials and showed no signs of leakage.

On Wednesday, the FDA said that along with dengue and rickettsia, the bacteria that can cause spotted fever, the additional vials contained microbes such as influenza and QВ fever, a bacteria that can cause complications with the heart, lungs and liver. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/AP) Those samples were flown to the CDC in Atlanta, and at least two have shown growth in tissue cultures, meaning they are viable, or alive.ДЄ magnified human skin-tissue sample from the site of a smallpox lesion. The vials of smallpox, a scourge that was eradicated decades ago after killing hundreds of millions of people in the 20th century alone, remain the most disturbing find this month inside the third-floor cold storage room in Building 29A. вЂњAnd the pattern is an insufficient culture of safety.вЂќД«oth the smallpox discovery and the previously undisclosed safety lapses at the CDC have sowed doubt about how the nationвЂ™s premier public health and research institutions are safeguarding some of the most lethal organisms on Earth. вЂњWe missed a critical pattern,вЂќ he told lawmakers. The disclosure came hours after Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, testified on Capitol Hill that researchers at the agency mishandled live anthrax and other deadly pathogens in a string of mishaps in recent years. вЂњWe take this matter very seriously, and weвЂ™re working to ensure that this doesnвЂ™t happen again.вЂќ вЂњThe fact that these materials were not discovered until now is unacceptable,вЂќ Karen Midthun, director of the FDAвЂ™s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), told reporters Wednesday. The discovery included 12 boxes and 327 vials holding an array of pathogens, including the virus behind the tropical disease dengue and the bacteria that can cause spotted fever, according to the Food and Drug Administration, which oversees the lab in question.

Federal officials found more than just long-forgotten smallpox samples recently in a storage room on the National Institutes for Health campus in Bethesda, Md.

Moons of madness vial in research lab