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http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,75631,00.html
LUBBOCK, Texas — As many as 35 vials containing samples of deadly bubonic plague have been accounted for, after they were reported missing from the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, the FBI said Wednesday afternoon.
"We have accounted for all those missing vials and we have determined that there is no danger to public safety whatsoever," FBI Agent Lupe Gonzalez said.
He said the vials, which were being used for research, were all recovered Wednesday. City officials had been unsure if the vials were stolen or merely misplaced.
The samples were capable of being weaponized, leading federal officials to aid in the search for the missing vials.
Former Assistant FBI Director Steve Pomerantz told Fox News: "This is something you must get on as quickly as possible" regardless of how practical it would be for a terrorist to use it as a weapon.
"Just the name 'bubonic plague' is enough to really spread terror," he said.
The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal's Web site, quoting unidentified law enforcement sources, said the vials turned up missing several days earlier but that the police weren't notified until Tuesday. Sixty investigators from various departments converged on the medical school campus, the newspaper said.
The university said the samples of the lethal bacteria were being used to improve treatment of plague victims and that the research was being conducted by Dr. Thomas Butler, chief of its infection disease division, who has been studying the plague for more than 25 years.
In Washington, FBI officials confirmed that they were contacted Tuesday night and dispatched agents to Lubbock to assist local authorities.
White House officials were briefed on the plague reports, said spokesman Ari Fleischer. He said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also was investigating.
Bubonic plague is an infectious disease of animals and humans caused by a bacterium named Yersinia pestis. People usually get it from being bitten by a rodent flea that is carrying the plague bacterium or by handling an infected animal.
Plague outbreaks have killed 200 million people in the past 1,500 years, but now the disease can be treated with antibiotics. Experts said it is unlikely the disease could kill anybody if a victim is treated soon after coming down with symptoms.
The most infamous bubonic plague epidemic was the Black Death, which began in 1347 and killed 25 million people in Europe and 13 million in the Middle East and China within five years.
According to the CDC, about 14 percent, or one in seven, of all plague cases in the United States are fatal. Human plague in this country has occurred as mostly scattered cases in rural areas -- an average of 10 to 20 persons each year -- and is active in about 15 states
Generally, plague is most common in the Southwestern states, particularly New Mexico and Arizona. Human plague occurs in 1,000 to 3,000 people worldwide each year, the CDC said.
The disease can be treated with antibiotics. Health officials say 10 to 20 people in the United States contract plague each year. About one in seven U.S. cases is fatal.
Plague -- along with anthrax, smallpox and a handful of other deadly agents -- is on a short watch list distributed by the federal government, which wants to make sure doctors and hospitals recognize a bioterror attack quickly.
But plague's symptoms can be difficult to spot. The disease is characterized by swelling, weakness and fever, symptoms that can signal anything from flu to West Nile virus.
Bubonic plague is not contagious. But left untreated, it can transform into pneumonic plague, a more dangerous disease that can be spread from person to person.
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