The Associated Press reported in the New York Times that a package containing West Nile virus exploded on Tuesday night (March 18) at a Federal Express building in Columbus, Ohio. Fifty workers were evacuated.

“Fire officials said dry ice used to preserve tissue samples with live virus might have caused the shoebox-size package to burst at the FedEx office near Port Columbus International Airport,” said the report. “The package, from the Ohio Department of Health and being sent to a researcher at the University of Texas, held brain and kidney tissue from a bird that had tested positive for the virus,” according to Jay Carey, spokesman for the health department