South East Asia’s first mobile BSL-3+ lab inaugurated in Nashik

NASHIK: South East Asia’s first ‘Bio Safety Level-3 plus’ category mobile laboratory was inaugurated at Nashik on Saturday.

Union minister of state for health and family welfare Dr Bharati Pawar, in the presence and director general of Indian Council of Medical Research, Balram Bhargava, inaugurated the laboratory.

Addressing the gathering, Dr Pawar said, “In case of a disease outbreak, it is a tedious task to arrange for samples, take it to National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune and then analyse it. Instead, the laboratory on wheels in the form of BSL-3 plus will be taken to the areas – villages, jungles, remote places, to study the samples. This will save enormous turn-around time for detection of pathogens and help in containing the spread.”