Britain needs a new £1BILLION super-lab dedicated to stopping the next pandemic amid warnings that Porton Down is ‘crumbling’, MPs are told
- Labs like Porton Down are key to a future pandemic response, experts told MPs
- READ MORE: Deadly diseases are coming to the UK because of climate change
Britain needs a new deadly pathogen super-lab to replace the crumbling Porton Down facility, experts have told MPs.
This secure Government research site in Salisbury is used to work with smallpox and other viruses and bacteria with biological warfare potential.
But its high security and containment facilities are also used by academics researching pathogens that could spark the next pandemic.
However, this work was being held back due to the site’s ‘crumbling’ state, experts have warned.
Professor Sir Peter Horby, director of the Pandemic Sciences Institute at Oxford University told MPs from the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee that the value of labs like Porton Down couldn’t be underestimated in terms of a pandemic response.
Experts say Porton Down’s ‘crumbling’ infrastructure is holding the UK back when it comes to research on dangerous pathogens
Porton Down is what is known as a Biosafety Level (BSL) 4 facility a site which, in theory, has the required safety and containment procedures to hold dangerous viruses and bacteria. Another famous BSL-4 lab is the Wuhan Institute of Virology
This map shows all the known BSL-4 labs with countries shaded based on how scientists have ranked their overall biorisk management score. Green is good, yellow is medium, and red is poor. Some planned labs are not included as their exact location in the country has not been announced
‘High containment laboratories are absolutely essential,’ he said.
‘You can’t diagnose the disease, you can’t evaluate the diagnostic tests, you can’t understand the disease’s pathogenesis, you can’t evaluate the therapeutics and vaccines and animal models unless you have high containment facilities.
‘At some stage you have to work with the live virus, you have to.’
But he said the UK is currently lacked capacity to carry out this work.
‘The infrastructure at Porton Down is crumbling,’ he said.
READ MORE: World’s deadliest diseases are coming to the UK because of climate change: Mosquitos and ticks carrying viruses with death rates of up to 50% will make Britain home, experts warn MPs
A number of diseases carried by mosquitoes and ticks could be on their way to Britain thanks to warming temperatures experts have warned with Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF) already reaching France according to tracking by the World Health Organization
When asked by MPs what the cost would be of replacing Porton Down, Professor Bryan Charleston, director of the Pirbright Institute, a high containment lab working on animal disease, said it would cost over £1billion.
‘You’d be talking a £1billion-plus to build a lab of sort of quality and the size that would be expected,’ he said.
However, he said such a mega-lab would have the advantage of ensuring research on dangerous pathogens was done correctly.
‘You don’t want two or three of these, you want one of the right size and you want it properly built and properly staffed,’ he said. ‘They are not easy to run.’
Porton Down is what is technically known as a Biosafety Level (BSL) 4 facility, the most secure laboratory of its kind for dangerous pathogen research.
BSL-4 labs often have armed guards to keep them secure, with researchers told to wear fully enclosed PPE suits during experiments.
Such sites, of which there are currently about 70 around the world, can contain the viruses and bacteria responsible for diseases like smallpox, Ebola, and Lassa Fever.
Another famous BSL-4 lab is the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China, the facility where some suspect Covid leaked out of, sparking a global pandemic.
The pandemic has sparked a rush on expanding BSL 3 and 4 labs, a move that has some experts concerned there could be a lack of oversight given the high containment standards these facilities should follow.
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