I was unhappy when I learned that a deadly flu virus had been sent around the world by mistake. When that happened, it seemed inevitable what would come next:

Two-thirds of flu virus shipments destroyed, but 3 still missing: WHO

GENEVA-Health experts have destroyed two-thirds of the specimens of a killer influenza virus sent as part of routine test kits around the world, but were still trying to trace three shipments that were supposed to go to Mexico, Lebanon and Chile, UN officials said Friday.

The World Health Organization has been urging thousands of labs in 19 countries that received vials of the nearly 50-year-old H2N2 virus to destroy the samples amid fears of a global pandemic should the virus be released. The original number of countries was 18, but on Friday it was learned that one lab in the United Kingdom also had been sent a sample.

WHO influenza chief Klaus Stohr said late Friday that 13 of the 19 countries that received samples had confirmed their labs had destroyed the virus.

However, labs in Lebanon, Mexico and Chile “never received the specimen, even though they were on the distribution list,” Stohr said.

Is it just me, or does that sound like they aren’t entirely sure of all the places the samples were sent? They report that the WHO is investigating the missing samples. I sure hope they find them.