Vial Containing Rare Venezuelan Virus Missing From Texas Laboratory

Public health risk low because the virus is not known to transmit between humans

GALVESTON, Texas, March 24 (UPI) -- A vial containing a rare Venezuelan virus has gone missing from a Texas biotech laboratory, the laboratory's president said.

The vial was noted missing during a routine inventory, Dr. David L. Callender, University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, said. The virus, guanarito, is only found naturally in a small section of Venezuela and because it is not known to transmit between humans it poses "no appreciable public health risk," Callender said.