According to Anna Popova, the head of Rospotrebnadzor, the inevitability of pandemics in Russia and partner countries makes it necessary to modernize the infrastructure of the sanitary and epidemiological service. This is reported by the Parlamentskaya Gazeta.
In the Russian Federation, it is planned that such work will be carried out as part of the Sanitary Shield project. Its goal is to bar the entry of dangerous infections into the country and prevent the development of pandemics. The project includes four areas: prevention, early detection, rapid response and effective control of all environmental objects and factors.
“The national laboratory infrastructure will be developed in order to enable rapid detection of infectious agents. It will allow for deciphering any unknown infection in 24 hours,” Anna Popova said.
If there are epidemiological risks, the new backup and mobile laboratories will be used for mass testing. Modern genetic technologies will be used to develop tools for creating a vaccine against a new infection in four months, the head of the department added.
In Russia, by 2030, according to the Sanitary Shield project, 36 modern diagnostic laboratories will have been established in order to study emerging new viruses. This was announced earlier by Tatyana Golikova, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation. By 2024, it is also planned to equip 240 border checkpoints. They will allow for rapid diagnostics in order to understand and identify threats.