On 6-7 December, the European Centre for Diseases Prevention and Control (ECDC) and Swedish Institute for Communicable Disease Control (SICDC) hosted in Stockholm (Sweden) the Roundtable on Ukrainian Anti-Plague Station Conceptual Design Phase

06 Dec 2011 - 07 Dec 2011

On 6-7 December, the European Centre for Diseases Prevention and Control (ECDC) and Swedish Institute for Communicable Disease Control (SICDC) hosted in Stockholm (Sweden) the Roundtable on Ukrainian Anti-Plague Station Conceptual Design Phase. STCU sponsored a delegation of the specialists from the Ukrainian Anti-Plague Station (UAPS, Simferopol, Crimea) and a number of European Biosafety/biosecurity Experts participation, along with STCU Deputy Executive Director (EU) Michel Zayet and other STCU staff.

The Roundtable was aimed at gathering external additional expertise on the Conceptual Design of the new UAPS facility which is planned to be constructed in the framework of the EU-funded STCU project "Bio-safety and bio-security improvement at the Ukrainian Anti-Plague Station in Simferopol”. During the Roundtable meeting problems and needs of the UAPS team related to the development of the new UAPS facility in accordance with the modern international biosafety/biosecurity standards have been discussed with the European Panel of Experts including Col. J. Kocik, Director of the Military Institute of Hygiene & Epidemiology (Poland); Dr. C. Bartels, Senior Expert Bioterrorism, ECDC (Sweden); Dr. A.J. Ozin-Hofsass, Deputy to the Chief Micboriologist, ECDC (Sweden); Dr. M.-F. Saron, Biosafety Advisor, Premier Minister Secretariat (France); Dr. Y. Kabrane, Biosafety Expert (France), Mr. A. Bennett, Group Leader, Centre for Emergency Preparedness and Response (Great Britain); Dr. T. Koivula, Biosafety Specialist , SICDC (Sweden); Dr. A. Bjorndal, SICDC (Sweden), etc.
As a result of the active and open discussions and brain storm the first draft of the Conceptual (functional) Design of the new UAPS facility has been created to be worked further by the UAPS team in consulting with the Ministry of Health of Ukraine and MIHE experts.

The other Thematic Issues discussed in the meeting were:
• The Ukrainian Anti-Plague Station (UAPS) Corresponding to Bio-Safety and Bio-Security Requirements
• Presentation of SICDC Activities and Collaboration Establishment with UAPS
• Presentation of the SICDC Approaches in Biosafety/biosecurity
• Open Discussion on the investigation of the especially dangerous pathogens:Vibrio infection and cholerae,Bacillus anthracis, Francisella tularensis, Yersinia pestis, Leptospira interrogans.

The visit of the UAPS/STCU delegation to the BSL-2 and BSL-3 level facilities of the SICDC has been organized to show to Ukrainian specialists the realization of the modern Biosafety/biosecurity approaches in practice.