Kazakhstan Opening Laboratory on Infectious Diseases

Kazakhstan is strengthening its efforts to prevent biological weapons attacks with the opening of a reference laboratory on dangerous infectious diseases and by equipping regional centers that chart the spread of disease around the country, the Kazakh deputy health care minister said yesterday (see GSN, July 16).

“This year, within the framework of the program to counter the proliferation of bacteriological warfare, negotiations are under way on building the central reference laboratory for especially dangerous infectious diseases and equipping regional laboratories and epidemiological stations which monitor especially dangerous infectious diseases in 12 Kazakh regions,” said Anatoliy Belonog, who is also the country’s chief public health officer.

The Kazakh Health Ministry is working closely with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and health care agencies in Russia and other Central Asian nations to promote the nation’s biological safety, Belonog said (Interfax-Kazakhstan News Agency/BBC Monitoring, July 29).

Back to top
About Newswire  |  Contact National Journal  |  Re-Use Guidelines © Copyright 2008 by National Journal Group, Inc. The material in this section is produced independently for NTI by National Journal Group, Inc. Any reproduction or retransmission, in whole or in part, is a violation of federal law and is strictly prohibited without the consent of the National Journal Group, Inc. All rights reserved.