Sunday, April 30, 2023

UN warns about “high risk of biological hazard” after warring party in Sudan captures biolab storing vaccines for measles, cholera

Report says U.S. supported 'extremely dangerous' biolab in another country



A biolab that contains multiple disease pathogens offering a serious threat to populations has been seized by soldiers involved in what more or less is a civil war in Sudan, according to the World Health Organization.

A Business Insider report explained WHO official Nima Saeed Abid confirmed lab technicians could not access the National Public Health Laboratory after it was taken over by militants.

Citing the presence of "polio isolates," "measles isolates" and "cholera isolates," he warned that the situation is "extremely dangerous."

Now a report at WarRoom.org reveals the lab was funded in part by U.S. government cash, much like the "gain-of-function" work done at the Wuhan, China, lab from which COVID-19 apparently escaped.

The report explained the nation's "Public Health Laboratory" got funding and personnel support from the Department of Defense, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Anthony Fauci’s National Institutes of Health agency.

Fauci is Joe Biden's former COVID adviser. He also headed the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases, and has been harshly criticized for repeatedly changing his advice regarding COVID. Many blame him in large part for the economic catastrophe created for American businesses by the many shutdown orders during the pandemic that killed millions around the world.

The report said a pamphlet from the CDC about its operations in south Sudan, from 2022, "reveals the extent of the government agency’s involvement in the country."

It explains, "In May 2018, CDC supported establishment of the first viral load monitoring facility at South Sudan’s National Public Health Laboratory (NPHL)."

The documentation about the American financial involvement there continues, "Since 2006, CDC has partnered with the Global Fund to support South Sudan’s NPHL by strengthening laboratory infrastructure, staffing, and technical capacity. With technical support from CDC, the Ministry of Health developed and released consolidated national HIV treatment guidelines and five laboratory manuals and standard operating procedures for NPHL staff and HIV/AIDS program staff."

The report further explained that a 2022 research paper, "Viral load scale-up in South Sudan: Strategic implementation of tools to monitor HIV treatment success among people living with HIV," charged that financial support from the CDC through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief was being used.

"The … grants all come from the NIAID during Fauci’s tenure and totals over 20 million dollars," the report said.




Despite an agreed-upon truce, fighting between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of Sudan are ongoing. And the latest news is that a national health facility that stores measles and cholera pathogens for vaccine production has been taken over by one of the warring parties.

Reuters reported that the United Nations’ (UN) World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the situation to have a “high risk of biological hazard” following the laboratory seizure, which occurred after more foreigners and locals fled the volatile capital city of Khartoum.

The WHO did not provide any details as to which side of the fight captured the biolab, which also contains a major blood bank for Sudan. All we know is that there has been a mass exodus from Africa’s third largest country, exacerbating fears that any civilians who choose to remain will be in danger once the three-day truce comes to an end on Thursday.



The situation is getting so bad that Yassir Arman, a leading figure in a civilian political coalition called the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) issued a public plea for humanitarian groups and the international community to do whatever it takes to help restore water and electricity in Sudan, as well as to get much-needed generators to local hospitals.

“There are bodies scattered in streets and sick people who cannot find medicine, no water nor electricity,” Arman said. “People should be allowed to bury their dead during the ceasefire.”

It is expected, according to the UN, that hundreds of thousands of people will end up fleeing Sudan into neighboring countries, potentially creating problems there as well.

Many of these people say they feel abandoned with nowhere else to go as they await what could become even more conflict and bloodshed in the days to come.

“Why is the world abandoning us at a time of war?” complained 27-year-old Sumaya Yassin, who further accused foreign powers of being selfish.

Khartoum, meanwhile, has become a ghost town with very few people still waiting there to see what happens.

“There is nothing left in stores, no water, no food,” one person said. “People have started to go out armed, with axes, with sticks … The situation has become very dangerous, including in areas not under bombardment.”

At the lab that was taken over, the WHO’s Nima Saeed Abid said that technicians from the National Public Health Laboratory were thrown out, which has left the facility in a precarious position.

“And there is high risk of biological hazards because in that lab we have already isolates, we have measles isolates as well as cholera isolates,” Abid warned.



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