Reports about the existence of Pentagon biological laboratories in Kazakhstan are untrue, says Zauresh Zhumadilova, director general of the National Scientific Center of Especially Dangerous Infections under the Ministry of Health of Kazakhstan, as reported by KazTAG information agency.
“There are no American biological laboratories in Kazakhstan. All our laboratories are Kazakhstan’s own. They are quite open, meaning you can visit them. Another issue is that it is necessary to undergo certain accreditation procedures with the authorized body ensuring biosafety of Kazakhstan — that is the Ministry of Health of Kazakhstan, which controls the entire network of such laboratories in the country. In our institute, as in other laboratories, only Kazakh specialists work,” Zhumadilova said.
The remarks were made during the discussion on “Prospects for cooperation between Central Asian countries in ensuring biological safety and controlling the epidemiological situation,” which took place in Bishkek last month.
Speaking at the event, expert Baikadam Kuramaev noted the position of the Kazakh authorities, who emphasize that all activities of Kazakh laboratories are exclusively peaceful. “The pandemic has shown that in order to ensure sanitary and epidemiological safety, Central Asian countries need to have the technical capabilities to identify particularly dangerous infections, including new exotic and cultivated viruses. The risks, as in 2020, of the rapid spread of dangerous infections at the cross-border level remain, given that hundreds of thousands of citizens make mutual trips between the countries of the region every day,” Kuramaev said, adding that for Kyrgyzstan, where work is underway to adopt a bill on biosafety, experience and cooperation with Kazakhstan is important.
Nurbolot Usenbaev, deputy director of the National Center for Quarantine and Particularly Dangerous Infections under the Kyrgyz Ministry of Health, said that “Many studied infections do not allow themselves to be forgotten, and new pathogens appear along with them. And almost all of them could have great pandemic potential. And we must be prepared for this.”
Kazakhstan’s Zauresh Zhumadilova emphasized that mankind is constantly fighting against various biological threats, many viruses have long been known and are well-studied, but new ones are also emerging. “The risk to the population remains. We are ready to actively cooperate with Central Asian countries in terms of preventing biological threats,” she said. Answering a question regarding the construction of a BSL4 level biological laboratory in the village of Gvardeysky in Kazakhstan’s southern Zhambyl region, Zhumadilova did not confirm the start of construction, but explained that in Kazakhstan, in connection with the coronavirus pandemic, the question arose of the need to develop a network of laboratories that could conduct research on group I pathogens — viruses. “This is a strategic issue regarding the biosecurity of the country. This is a promising direction, but it has not yet been implemented in Kazakhstan. It’s quite expensive.”
