Illustration: Building fire. (Image via LitReactor)

Gas explosion in Russia's Ebola and Smallpox Vector facility

Alfonsus Adi Putra
Business & Industry
Medical and Health
Sep 18, 2019
2303
On Monday (16/9), a gas explosion caused fire at a medical facility in Russia. The Russian medical facility is called the State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology, known as Vector. The six-story building, located in Koltsovo, in the Novosibirsk region of Siberia.

Vector is known to be one of the two most advanced medical facilities in the world to store the deadliest pathogens in the world, namely Ebola and Smallpox.

A gas cylinder exploded on the fifth floor, during repairs to the sanitary inspection room. The fire then spread through the air ventilation. The fire quickly covered 30 square meter area. One worker of the facility suffered third-degree burns and had to be hospitalized.

The Mayor of Koltsovo stated that there was no need to announce a medical emergency status since the building was not storing any lethal strain of disease. The authorities also backed the statement by stating that the fire did not do any harm to the stories where the samples were stored.

Two places store the deadly Smallpox virus: Vector facility in Russia and US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention in Atlanta, US. Both facilities were allowed to store the deadliest virus known to mankind because they possess a “Level-4” biosafety, the highest security level for a medical facility.

Founded in 1974 as a secret facility for Soviet military handling bioweapon, Vector now became Russia’s and one of the world’s top medical facilities. Vector also stores highly contagious strains of avian flu, tularemia, swine flu, hepatitis, and even anthrax.

In 2004, a researcher at Vector accidentally killed herself due to pricking her fingers with a syringe containing the Ebola virus.

So, should the world be on a high alert due to the fire? Not necessarily, a medical expert stated that a virus will not survive more than 100°. However, it needs to be handled quickly as the infection might be still at large due to the explosion’s waves.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/17/blast-sparks-fire-at-russian-laboratory-housing-smallpox-virus

Medical , Health , Incident , Europe , Russia , Science