NEW YORK (AP) – Thirteen years after building a state-of-the-art lab for the world’s most dangerous germs, the nation’s top public health agency is asking for more than $400 million to build a new one.
Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say the current lab building in Atlanta is quickly wearing down, and cannot be upgraded without shutting down the facility for years. The lab investigates deadly and exotic germs like Ebola, smallpox and dangerous new forms of flu.
The agency disclosed its plans for a new lab on Friday.
The CDC lab is one of only eight U.S. labs with the security and safety features necessary to work with the highest-threat germs, said James Le Duc, director of one of them, the University of Texas’s Galveston National Laboratory. Five of the eight are run by the federal government.
The lab is housed in a 400,000-square-foot concrete building located in the heart of the CDC’s main campus. It uses eye scanners and other James Bond-like security measures to restrict access. Workers wear protective gear and there’s a web of computerized systems that monitor workers, lock doors, and ensure that dangerous germs don’t escape.