CDC seeks new labs for bioterror pathogens to replace aging facility
Administration asks Congress for $350M for new lab complex.
ATLANTA — Inside a complex of special government labs, scientists in full-body protective suits work with some of the world’s deadliest pathogens: Ebola, smallpox and certain strains of bird flu.
Many of the organisms have no treatment or vaccine, so the labs housed in this facility on the sprawling campus of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are equipped with extensive safety features. There is special air pressurization to prevent any accidental release, ment and the White House, and hoses attached to the but this is the first official bulky protective outfits pump request to Congress by any in breathing air for the sciadministration. entists wearing them. “What the engineers are
But the facility, which dates telling us is that all of the to 2005, needs to be replaced, equipment that is running CDC officials said in inter- this thing, the brain to it, all views this week. Some com- of these things are aging,” ponents that support air-hansaid Stuart Nichol, chief of dling systems and ensure the CDC’s viral special pathogens integrity of pressurized door branch, which studies highly seals are no longer manufac- infectious viruses. tured. Other new technoloConstruction of new labs gies can’t be integrated into would take four years, and existing facilities. Nichol warned that “in the
The administration is askrelatively near future, things ing Congress for $350 million will start to break down, and to build a new high-contain- you start to have less of a ment lab complex on the CDC safety margin for operation.” campus. It is among dozens The proposed facility is of requests on the administra- competing for funds with tion’s wish list that was sent about 80 other administra- to Capitol Hill in mid-Febru- tion priorities, including a ary. Lawmakers must decide border wall with Mexico, a in the coming weeks how new FBI headquarters and to allocate billions in non- full renovation of the National defense spending as part of Air and Space Museum. An the budget deal to fund the appropriations committee government for the remain- aide, who spoke on the con- der of the fiscal year. dition of anonymity because
CDC officials flagged the the budget process is ongo- need for a new facility during ing, said Thursday that it’s too the Obama administration soon to know what requests with officials at the Health will receive serious consider- and Human Services Depart- ation. “Everything is open for weapon. The CDC research helped produce a potential new smallpox vaccine, a new antiviral drug and a test to diagnose smallpox cases quickly, said Inger Damon, director of the agency’s Division of High-Consequence Pathogens.
Critical research about influenza also takes place in the labs. When China began seeing human infections from a lethal strain of bird flu in 2013, officials reached out to CDC researchers to assess how likely the virus could emerge as a pandemic, and if so, “how bad it would be,” said Daniel Jernigan, who heads the influenza division.
That risk assess m ent involved animal studies and required “specialized equipnegotiation,” the aide said, ment that basically sucks in adding that “public health is the air and determines what definitely a priority.” size particles and how infec
Former CDC director Tom tious they are,” he said. Of all Frieden called the labs “an emerging influenza viruses, essential line of defense that strain of H7N9 has the against the deadliest health greatest potential to cause threats.” He noted that 15 a pandemic if it evolves to years is a long time in the life spread easily from human span of such crucial high-con- to human. It also poses the tainment units. greatest risk to cause seri
“Although the age of the ous disease. labs has not contributed to The CDC’s high-containany lapse in health secument facility has four quadrity,” he said, “CDC needs rants, each focusing on difthe upgrades to avoid future ferent viruses, with the main problems and to keep pace work centered in a biosafety with improving technology level 4 lab — the maximum and evolving threats.” safety level — surrounded by a
Scientists work with suite of biosafety level 3 labs. about 35 viruses at the facil- They are part of a complex ity. Research there was key known as Building 18. to identifying the African In 2014, the labs came fruit bat as the primary under scrutiny because of host and source for Mara series of incidents involvburg virus, a hemorrhagic ing the mishandling of danfever that kills up to 80 per- gerous pathogens, includcent of victims. ing Ebola, anthrax and bird
The facility is also one of flu. Those problems involved only two labs in the world human error and breakdowns working with live smallpox in protocol and prompted an virus. Although smallpox has overhaul in lab safety and been eradicated, it remains creation of a new associate one of the highest-priordirector for lab safety. They ity pathogens because of did not result in any known its potential as a biological infections or illnesses.