U.S. health officials are investigating whether old vials found in a laboratory storeroom contain live smallpox virus, one of the most dangerous diseases known to man, and how they came to be abandoned, the government said. The vials, dating from the 1950s, were found July 1 as workers prepared to move a Food and Drug Administration laboratory from Bethesda, Maryland, to the agency’s main campus in Silver Spring, Maryland. Labeled “variola,” the genus name for the virus, the vials were sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta where they tested positive for smallpox DNA, the agency said today in a statement.
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