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Raising the Bar for Combating Biological Threats

Author admin August 22, 2016

26According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 1,338 cases of West Nile virus infections in the United States in 2008, with 43 ending in death. The 2007 to 2008 influenza season was estimated to have almost 2,000 deaths in the United States alone. In 2007, there were 13,299 cases of tuberculosis in the United States and nearly 9 million new cases around the world. From the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s to 2007, AIDS infected 1,051,875 people, taking the lives of 583,298.

Many institutions are pursuing research to combat these global and endemic health issues, and Yale is investing its resources to be a forerunner in this research. This year, a new Level 3 biosafety labora­tory (BSL-3) opened at the Yale School of Public Health.

Professor Sara Rockwell, the director of the School of Medicine’s Office of Scientific Affairs, described the facility as an expanded, modernized version of Yale’s previous BSL-3. More advanced technology and increased research space gives Yale researchers the resources they need to study emergent diseases.

As Professor Rockwell said, “This lab allows us to react to diseases that suddenly affect us as a local and a global community.”

  1. Professor Sara Rockwell, the director of the School of Medicine’s Office of Scientific
  2. As Professor Rockwell said, “This lab allows us to react to diseases
  3. As Professor Rockwell said, “This lab allows us to react to diseases that suddenly
    1. This year, a new Level 3 biosafety labora­tory (BSL-3)
    2. treatment methods and vaccines for diseases
    3. HIV, and prion diseases like scrapie and Creutzfeldt-Jakob syndrome.
  4. AIDS epidemic in the 1980s to 2007.
  5. affect us as a local and a global community

A BSL-3 is the second highest level of a biosafety lab. They deal with possibly fatal infectious agents in search of vaccines and treatments. At Yale’s new and improved BSL-3, investigators research treatment methods and vaccines for diseases such as influenza, tuberculosis, HIV, and prion diseases like scrapie and Creutzfeldt-Jakob syndrome.