The Queensland government announced on Monday that hundreds of vials containing live viruses went missing from a laboratory in Australia. “We’ve launched an investigation into the virology lab breach. There is no evidence of risk to the community from the 2021 breach, and our Government is working to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” Queensland Health Minister Tim Nicholls said. WATCH: We’ve launched an investigation into the virology lab breach. There is no evidence of risk to the community from the 2021 breach, and our Government is working to make sure it doesn’t happen again. #qldpol pic.twitter.com/290tpod25g — Tim Nicholls MP (@TimNichollsMP) December 9, 2024 “323 vials of live viruses are now unaccounted for,” Daily Mail noted. Per Newsweek: The breach was discovered in August 2023, with nearly 100 of the missing vials containing Hendra virus, which is deadly. Two of the vials contained hantavirus, while 223 vials contained samples of lyssavirus. Hendra virus was first discovered in the mid-1990s after infecting and killing several horses in Australia. Only a handful of humans have caught the disease after being infected by horses, but a large proportion of infected people died. “Hendra virus has a 57 percent fatality rate in humans and has had a devastating impact on those who have been infected, their families and on the veterinary and equine industries in areas where the virus spills over,” Raina Plowright, a professor at the department of public and ecosystem health at Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, previously told Newsweek. Hantavirus is carried by rodents and can cause Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS), which has a mortality rate of around 38 percent, while lyssavirus is similar to rabies and also has a very high mortality rate. "Hundreds of vials containing live viruses have gone missing from a laboratory in Australia, sparking an investigation. Queensland Health Minister Tim Nicholls announced today that 323 samples of live viruses — including Hendra virus, Lyssavirus and Hantavirus — went missing in… pic.twitter.com/ByCNpmNmov — Children’s Health Defense (@ChildrensHD) December 10, 2024 “Hundreds of deadly virus samples have vanished from an Australian lab in a 'major breach' of biosecurity. Yesterday, Queensland Health Minister Tim Nicholls has announced that 323 vials of live viruses are now unaccounted for. These include nearly 100 vials of hendra virus,… pic.twitter.com/LwTY3IHZzi — Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) December 10, 2024 Daily Mail reports: Queensland authorities insist that while the samples could be weaponised, this is ‘not something an amateur does’. The samples went missing in 2021 but investigators only confirmed the breach in August 2023. It is believed that the vials of deadly viruses were lost by Queensland’s Public Health Virology Laboratory when the freezer they were being stored in broke down. Speaking at a press conference, Queensland Chief Health Officer John Gerrard said: ‘It’s this part of the transfer of those materials that is causing concern. ‘They were transferred to a functioning freezer without the appropriate paperwork being completed. The materials may have been removed from that secure storage and lost, or otherwise unaccounted-for.’ The three strains of virus leaked from the lab all have the potential to be deadly for humans.