Paris - The highest security laboratory in Europe, one of only four in the world equipped to stalk the most deadly germs known to man, was inaugurated by President Jacques Chirac in Lyon yesterday, writes Lara Marlowe.
The Jean Merieux P4 Laboratory is headed by a British scientist, Ms Susan Fisher-Hoch, a specialist in the African Ebola and Lassa viruses. The "p" in P4 stands for pathogen; 4 is the highest level, ascribed only to the most dangerous diseases for which there is no cure. Scientists classify salmonella and the bacteria that cause legionnaire's disease as P2. The HIV virus that causes Aids is P3. P4 germs include two "new viruses" that appeared in Africa in this decade: Ebola is transmitted by poor hygiene in hospitals and leads to massive haemorrhaging. Lassa, which also causes bleeding, is transmitted when rodents come into contact with human food. It has already killed 15,000 people.
Elaborate measures are necessary to protect researchers studying these diseases, and to ensure that the germs do not escape to the outside environment. The Jean Merieux laboratory is built on six earthquake-proof pillars, straddling another laboratory on the banks of the Rhone River. Its outer shell is made of bazooka-proof glass. The second layer of the laboratory is armoured steel.
The viruses are stored in casks of liquid nitrogen, and the innermost chamber of the lab is slightly depressurised so that in the event of a leak, air flows into it.