“The system is working effectively and transparently, which is good,” said Steve Kuo, director of Centers for Disease Control (CDC), in a telephone interview.

CDC Vice Director Su Hsun-pi ordered six samples of the bacterium Burkholderia pseudomallei-a from a hospital for research on an agency-funded project, Kuo said.

Burkholderia is considered a biothreat, although the infectious disease it causes is not normally transmitted from person to person, a CDC statement said, distinguishing the organism from the far-more-lethal anthrax.

Su’s order for the controlled substance was filled because she used the agency’s stationary, Kuo said. The security breach was discovered in January during a routine inventory check _ part of the biosecurity system implemented by the CDC in 2003.

Su was suspended from all research projects pending the agency’s decision on the appropriate disciplinary action, expected by next week.

However, there was no security risk in her action, Kuo said. The organism had been properly disposed of, and an investigation confirmed that the bacteria had not left CDC control. Legal possession of the bacterium would have required formal permission, Kuo said.

“I’m pretty ... sure that the biosecurity committee would have approved,” he added.

Kuo said Su was researching melioidosis, the infectious disease caused by the bacterium she had requested. Several melioidosis cases were reported in Taiwan last year after a typhoon, he said.

“It’s not like she took the bacteria and went home to her own research,” Kuo said. “It was CDC research.”

Kuo said Taiwan’s current biosecurity measures were implemented after a military officer contracted SARS while studying the disease in 2003.

“Our own people go around investigating all the laboratories and medical research facilities in Taiwan,” Kuo said. “We have a transparent and a faultfinding mechanism.”

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