Biosafety and biosecurity/prevention of spread of infectious diseases

Description What is done in the programme or project and why, what results are pursued, who benefits from the activities and who are involved in the implementation.

Biosafety and biosecurity related projects aim at building capacity in developing countries to prevent the spread of infectious diseases. This project aims at preventing unintentional and intentional spread of infections diseases by supporting biosecurity projects in the developing countries. The existence and outbreaks of diseases that are dangerous to life place great strains to the national healthcare systems. Efforts to identify microbes that cause infectious diseases are vital to any nation’s public health system. The Finnish Centre for Biothreat Preparedness (BUOS)/Centre for Military Medicine will administer and implement biosecurity project that will strengthen the know-how of making diagnosis of infectious diseases in Tanzania. The goal of the programme is to train Tanzanians of this knowhow but also to operate related equipment which enables rapid diagnosis of infections diseases. Local expertise, detection abilities and developing of biosecurity know-how reduces potential biothreat. The project strengthens capacity in Tanzania but also builds global security. The main collaborator is the Tanzania Veterinary Laboratory Agency which is part of the public health sector. This project is a 5-year project and totals 830 000 Euros.