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Contents of suspicious vial still unknown

Possibility of ebola virus unlikely, new clues could aid investigation

The contents of a suspicious vial found on the UA campus Thursday will not be known until later this week - but new information has been revealed about the writing on the tube and what clues that could give investigators.

UAPD Cmdr. Brian Seastone confirmed that there was writing on the container, but would not elaborate further.

Dr. Kent Campbell, dean of the College of Public Health, said what is written on the tube could be telling.

"If it only said 'ebola', it makes it less likely it was taken from a lab," Campbell said.

Virus vials tested in labs explicitly say what they contain and what experiments are being done, Campbell said.

"The chances this is ebola are so slim it is almost negligible. It is astonishingly unlikely," he added.

On Thursday afternoon, a University of Arizona security guard called university police to report the discovery of a suspicious vial in a breezeway outside the Chemistry and Biological Sciences building, 1340 E. University Blvd.

Shortly thereafter, almost 500 students were evacuated from the CBS building as a precautionary measure.

The FBI took the vial to send it to the national Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta to determine its contents.

Campbell, who worked at the CDC for 21 years, said the UA is not certified to handle high-level viruses on campus.

The CDC classifies viruses by containment requirements in four categories. The levels range from P-1, which includes the common cold, to P-4 - ebola.

Ebola - which is suspected to incubate in fruit bats of Africa - is often fatal in humans and non-human primates. The disease is characterized by extreme fever, rash, and profuse hemorrhaging, according to the CDC.

Campbell added that, to his knowledge, the UA is only allowed to handle up to P-2 viruses - like hepatitis A and tuberculosis.

Ebola is only tested at two locations in the United States - Fort Detrick in Maryland and the CDC in Atlanta. Because the virus is only tested on the East Coast, the presence of ebola in Tucson "geographically doesn't make sense," Campbell said.

If the vial does contain the ebola virus, Campbell said students were not in extreme danger.

"(Ebola) is not easily transmitted," he said.

Even if a person came in physical contact with the ebola virus or breathed the air surrounding it, Campbell said the probability of infection is still minimal.

Although there have been no confirmed cases of humans contracting the virus via airborne transmission, Campbell said there was a case where a laboratory monkey died of ebola - even though he did not come in contact with another infected monkey.

In Africa, where the virus is suspected to have originated, most humans either contract the disease from consumption of infected monkeys or from cross-contamination with blood in hospitals.

Between 1976 and 1996, almost 1,100 people died from ebola worldwide, though the United States had no confirmed deaths from the disease.

About 70 to 80 percent of people who contract ebola die, Campbell said.

Regardless of the contents of the vial, Seastone said UAPD followed its procedure to deal with suspected bioterrorism.

"We have a plan to deal with bioterrorism," he said. "Few agencies are equipped to deal with these situations. That is why we brought in help from the FBI."

Seastone added that whoever is responsible for this incident could face federal, state or local charges. He added that the charges cannot be determined until the contents of the vial are known.