The sustained increase in laboratories dedicated to studying lethal pathogens is worrying the scientific community, given the potential danger of a “breakout” of viruses as harmful as Ebola. The Global BioLabs mapping project revealed that urban areas around the world are home to three quarters of the 51 biosafety level 4 laboratories, those maximum containment facilities, where employees work on agents that commonly cause serious and transmissible diseases. quick.
Laboratories of this type have doubled in the last decade, a growth that is largely explained by the United States’ reaction to the 2001 anthrax attacks and the international response to the SARS outbreak in 2003. Although most are in Europe and North America, interest now falls on Asia, where most of the 18 level 4 labs planned so far will be built.
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