A new set of regulations taking effect Saturday will prohibit
Chinese lab directors from allowing experiments on risky pathogenic
microbes without approval.
The Chinese cabinet passed the 32-page and 72-item regulations
in response to the incident in March when two people were infected
by severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus at a lab of the
Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
China will grade its pathogenic microbe labs by four levels. The
first and second grades are labs forbidden to conduct experiments
on risky pathogenic microbes, which can cause severe diseases in
human and animals and easily spread, the regulations said.
The third and fourth grade of labs are off limits for
experiments without special certificates from the health and
veterinary medicine administrations, the regulations said.
These labs also must get approval from the administration when
they plan to take up the experiments on risky pathogenic microbe
and report the result when the research ends, the document
added.
Early this year, the Diarrhea Virus Laboratory under the
Institute of Virus Diseases of the center did experiments with the
SARS virus without proper qualification and facilities to prevent
the virus from spreading.
The administration found that the lab researchers used an
untested method to kill the SARS virus and did not test the result
of the process.
This was later confirmed as the source of SARS outbreak in China
this year. The 2004 recurrence of SARS caused nine people to fall
ill and one death.
The director and deputy director of the center resigned. The
head and deputy head of the center's Institute of Virus Diseases as
well as director of the lab were dismissed in July.
Now, according to the regulations, the head of the institution
that owns a lab and head of the lab will be dismissed if a mistake
like this happens again.
The biosafety regulations were the first and most authoritative
one in China for medical labs, said an official with the Ministry
of Health Saturday.
"The ministries of Health, of Agriculture and of Science and
Technology all issued relevant documents and rules on this aspect
but no standardized one was issued," he said, "We are working on a
plan to implement the regulations."
Gao Qiang, executive vice-minister of health, said early July
that strengthening lab biosafety is an important and urgent task
for the national health system.
"The March outbreak sounds the alarm for the nation's lab safety
management," Gao said. "The necessary punishment for some cadres is
to help consolidate the responsibility awareness for relevant
officials and establish a responsibility system for major
accidents."
The regulations also ask medical labs to set up special
departments or personnel to supervise the facilities. The labs must
report to the superior administration if an accident takes place,
the regulations said.
The first outbreak of SARS happened in early spring 2003 and a
total of 5,327 cases were reported that year in 24 provincial areas
on the mainland. Nearly 350 people died of the disease.
The Ministry of Health issued a plan to prevent SARS and bird
flu this winter and next spring early this month, promising to send
out experts within 24 hours after the first suspected case is
found.
(Xinhua News Agency November 28, 2004)