VA Officials Hit for Dumping Research

[unhappycamper]

VA Officials Hit for Dumping Research
September 10, 2008
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

U.S. House members on Tuesday admonished Veterans Affairs officials from Pittsburgh for ordering the destruction of thousands of Legionella samples even as a researcher was attempting to save the "irreplaceable" collection.

The destroyed samples represented nearly 30 years of medical research by Dr. Victor Yu, former chief of the VA's Infectious Disease Section, and Dr. Janet Stout, former director of the Special Pathogens Laboratory in Oakland and one of the nation's leading researchers in Legionnaires' disease.

During a congressional hearing held in Washington and carried live on the Internet, VA officials said they destroyed the samples because Yu and Stout did not provide a catalog of their research material after they were abruptly fired in July 2006.

The officials said they tossed the vials six months later, unaware of their research and diagnostic value.

Rep. Brad Miller, D-N.C., chairman of the House Science and Technology subcommittee on investigations and oversight, was not convinced.


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/news/article/va-officials-hit-for-dumping-research.html?col=1186032310810