Country's first bio-safety lab opens
International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B) yesterday opened country's first bio-safety laboratory to protect its scientists and technicians from infliction of viral onslaughts during research work.
US ambassador in Dhaka James F Moriarty inaugurated the lab.
ICDDR'B officials said the new facility would help researchers to handle the deadly viruses with more proficiency under enhanced protective measures.
The United States is a major sponsor of the ICDDR,B and the US envoy said his country would continue work with Bangladesh to promote health and nutrition standard alongside agriculture.
“In implementing our feed the future and global health initiatives, the United States is aligning our resources with Bangladesh's own strategies, working together with many other partners,” he said.
Moriarty said the ICDDR,B's BSL-3 laboratory is a very good example of broad collaboration linking the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Centre for Disease Control, the National Institutes of Health, the US Agency for International Development and different organisations of Bangladesh.
Referring to the one million US dollar support provided by the USDA, national Institute of Food and Agriculture and the USDA research service for ICDDR,B's research on vitamin A deficiency, he said USDA works closely with the centre for disease control to monitor and control the spread of infectious animal diseases- a critical part of the work here at ICDDR,B.
Executive Director of ICDDR,B Dr A Cravioto addressed the function. Researchers, officials of ICDDR,B and US embassy officials were also present on the occasion.
ICDDR,B researchers said with the new BSL-3 laboratory, the center can assist the government of Bangladesh with research on deadly diseases and provide an accurate diagnosis using the equipment installed in the laboratory.
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