It’s hard to imagine a country importing some of the world’s most dangerous viruses. Yet that is what Japan did, in an effort to prepare for infectious diseases and bioterrorist attacks in the run-up to two 2020 Olympic Games.
Ebola virus, Marburg virus, Lassa fever, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever and South America. Here are five of the most dangerous diseases in the world. Here are also the diseases that Japan has decided to import, a few months before the 2020 Olympic Games. Naturethese viruses were transported to the premises of the Japanese National Institute of Infectious Diseases in Tokyo, in order to be tested.
This is the first time that class 4 pathogens – the highest level of danger – will enter the premises of this institute, the only infrastructure in the country authorized for these levels of security. Europe and the United States each have a dozen such laboratories in operation or under construction, and China has at least four so far, under construction or operational.
Infectious diseases and bioterrorist attack
Specialists say that during the Olympics, where people from all over the world travel to the host country, the risk of an epidemic is no greater than usual. However, Japan wishes to study these viruses in order to guard against infectious diseases, and even against a bioterrorist attack. And this, by developing a test to know if a person is contagious or not, by measuring their level of antibodies against the virus.
In recent months, the Ebola epidemic has regained ground in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Japanese fear the arrival of infected people on their territory on the occasion of the Olympics. “A proven Ebola infection during these Games could have devastating consequences if the emergency responses are not professional”, affirms Elke Mühlberger, microbiologist at the University of Boston. However, she adds that such an event is unlikely.
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