FRIDAY, April 19, 2024
nationthailand

Call for special lab to be built for viruses 'with no cure'

Call for special lab to be built for viruses 'with no cure'

The Department of Medical Sciences (DMSC) has Ebola virus test kits that can yield results in 5 to 8 hours with 90 per cent accuracy, DMSC chief Dr Apichai Mongkol said yesterday.

The department has also asked the Public Health Ministry to build the country’s first Biosafety Level (BSL) 4 laboratory, Apichai said. 
He said each set of the Polymerase Chain Reaction kits cost Bt300,000 and they can carry out 100 tests. There are three different brands of test kits imported from Germany and China. 
Tests for someone suspected of having Ebola would require all three types of test kits to ensure the most accurate results and the testing and analysis would have to be conducted in a BSL 3 laboratory, as per World Health Organisation guidelines.
The department has also asked the ministry for Bt57 million to build the BSL 4 laboratory to handle serious viruses with no cure or vaccine, Apichai said. Such a lab was necessary for Thailand and Asean countries in case of an outbreak and urgent need of microbiological culture and test confirmation, he said. 
If the construction of a BSL 4 lab is approved, the department will go head with public hearings, especially in relation to the location, he said.
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