Project News

Passing after the mid-term of the project period, our so far experience might let us consider without doubt that issues on nurturing Vietnamese private sectors are inevitable in order to establish biosafety and strategies against infectious diseases in the future. Therefore, workshop on "Experience sharing on design and installation of containment laboratories" was organized on July 15 at NIHE in order to share the on-going information on design and installation of containments by Vietnamese private sectors and to obtain advise on policies of design and installation from Japanese short-term experts. A total of 34 participants attended the workshop from researchers in charge of biosafety in 4 regional institutes, and from engineers of 7 private sectors.

The project leader made an opening speech and Dr. Thuy, project manager, explained the purpose of the workshop and the outline of the current situation of biosafety in Vietnam implemented by the project, and gave a short introduction on laboratories for Tuberculosis according to the global guidance of WHO. Next Mr. Xuang Hung, a technical manager of BKTECHCO, a private company for installation, explained the TB (Bacillus tuberculosis) laboratory, based on the blueprint, as an example of on-going installation of laboratories. Two Japanese experts, Mr. Miki and Dr. Shinohara, at first gave a lecture on the basic principles for design and installation of biosafety facilities, and then gave advice in detail on several points of the laboratory mentioned above including separation clean from duty area, relative installation sites of biosafety cabinets and exhaust ducts from the view points of airflow in laboratory.

In the afternoon, Mr. Miki gave a lecture on the design principle of containment laboratory, in which he underlined the importance of requirements clearly presented by laboratory users to promote the mutual understanding between laboratory designers and users. In succession, Dr. Shinohara introduced Japanese BSL-2/-3 facilities of NIID as a typical case and gave a lecture on requirements for biosafety facilities, depending on the levels, by explaining the concrete examples. Next Mr. Xuang Hung technical manager explained the outline of the BSL-3 laboratories, based on the blueprint, which are planed to install in Hanoi PCPM in 2015. Mr. Miki and Dr. Shinohara pointed out the possibility of airflow leakage from laboratories to corridors due to the pressure difference among corridors, preparatory rooms, pre-rooms and laboratories in the case of not-well conditions. Taken together, the workshop provided participants to share the current situation of design and installation in Vietnamese private sectors and shed light on points to be improved in growing-up of private sectors in the future.

Lecture on design of containment by Miki expert

Introduction of NIID BSL-3 by Dr.Shinohara expert