Dr Chua Teck-Mean, President of the Asia-Pacific Biosafety Association, speaks at the 12th A-PBA Conference that opened in HCM City on August 24. (Photo: VNA)HCM City (VNA) – As many as
180 international and Vietnamese bio-safety experts, professionals
and practitioners are discussing , , and
at the 12th Asia-Pacific Biosafety Association
(A-PBA) Conference that opened in Ho Chi Minh City on August 24.
The four-day conference aims at
generating discussions on the various current bio-safety and bio-security
issues of concern at the global, regional, national and technical levels.
The discussions range from
bio-terrorism, bio-risk management, challenges from bio-threat in a rapid
changing world of science and technology, and laboratory bio-risk in the
Asia-Pacific region.
“With the increasing threat of
bio-terrorism around the world, concerns have been raised about how well we are
managing and safeguarding infectious agents in our facilities,” Dr Chua
Teck-Mean, president of the A-PBA, said.
“The progress of science and technology
in the last decade has also posed new challenges in and bio-security.”
It is with these concerns that A-PBA
has chosen the theme of this year’s conference to be “Biosecurity &
Biosafety – New Challenges of Bio Threat in a Rapidly Changing World of Science
& Technology,” he said.
Prof Dang Duc Anh, Director of the
National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, a co-organiser of the
conference, said researching and testing dangerous infectious pathogens plays
an important role in controlling communicable diseases and helps prevent,
detect and respond to dangerous diseases.
“Ensuring bio-safety and bio-security
in laboratories working with infectious pathogens is essential to protect
laboratory workers and the community.
“Today with the changes in science and
technology, bio-safety and bio-security are becoming more and more concerned.”
The World Health Organisation and the
US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention have issued detailed guidelines
for bio-safety and bio-security, and based on these guidelines, countries have
developed their own regulations and guidelines, he said.
Vietnam is a leading country in
Southeast Asia in developing a legal framework for bio-safety and bio-security,
he said.
Thanks to that, its laboratories are
safe, he added.
A-PBA, begun in 2005, represents more
than 800 practising bio-safety professionals from more than 42 countries.-VNA
Source: VietnamPlus
