A researcher took genetic material linked to the deadly Ebola virus out of Winnipeg's National Microbiology Laboratory before ending up in custody in North Dakota for allegedly trying to smuggle 22 vials into the United States.
But the "Ebola gene" substance contained in some of the containers which the former Winnipeg lab employee is accused of trying to sneak across the border last week is not dangerous, the facility's scientific director stressed yesterday.
"He did not work with the Ebola virus itself," Dr. Frank Plummer, speaking to reporters by phone, said of Konan Yao who was arrested May 5 after U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers allegedly discovered the vials in the trunk of a car he was driving at the Pembina, N.D. port of entry.
"He was working on an Ebola vaccine project, so there was some genetic material -- a small amount ... from the Ebola virus in the material that he took off with. But it posed no risk of infection -- and no risk to the health of the public," Plummer added.
"The only thing he could have done with it would be to make an Ebola vaccine."
Plummer said that Yao, a 42-year-old Canadian who last worked at the Winnipeg lab in January, "at no time" had access to so-called Level 3 or Level 4 pathogens that are most dangerous and infectious, and under high security.
However, the incident has prompted officials at the lab -- part of the federal Canadian Science Centre for Human and Animal Health -- to study their security procedures even for the Level 1 and Level 2 areas and non-infectious materials which Yao had access to until his work fellowship ended.
'Between laboratories'
"The materials ... he removed from the laboratory move across borders all the time between laboratories," Plummer explained.
"One of the ironies here is that if this individual had, through appropriate channels, made a request for these materials, it's quite likely he would have got access to them."
According to documents filed in U.S. District Court, Yao has told authorities that he worked on a vaccine for the deadly Ebola virus and HIV at the Winnipeg lab, and that he stole the 22 vials "because he did not want to start his research over from the beginning" when he was to begin his next planned fellowship with the National Institutes of Health at the Biodefense Research Laboratory in Bethesda, Md.
U.S. Customs officers found the vials in a glove wrapped in aluminum foil and in a plastic bag.
The charge brings a possible sentence of 20 years in prison, the court papers state.
Lawyer Richard Henderson, a Fargo, N.D.-based public defender representing Yao, referred comment to a regional federal defenders' office in Rapid City, S.D., which had no spokesperson available.
