Page 1 of 2 Bangladesh Biosafety and Biosecurity Newsletter | Vol 1 | No 02 | Sept 2019

BBBN V1N2

This Quarterly Newsletter is Dedicated to

Strengthening Biosafety and Biosecurity Status in Bangladesh

Leading to Sustainable Development in Health and Agriculture.

A-PBA 14thAnnual Biorisk Conference in 2019

Photo: Inauguration of the 14th A-PBA Biorisk Conference by honorable Mayor of North Dhaka City Corporation Mr Md Atiqul Islam.

Inaugural session of the conference:

Inaugural session of the conference was started introducing the culture of Six Seasons in Bangladesh, Nrityanandan, at Hotel Intercontinental, Dhaka. Honorable MAYOR, Dhaka North City Corporation Mr Md. Atiqul Islam addressed the audience as Chief Guest. Dr Saraswathy Subramaniam, President, Asia Pacific Biosafety Association, delivered he opening message. Among the other dignitaries Mr Md Ashadul Islam, Honorable Secretary, Health Care Division, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Professor Dr Nasima Sultana, Additional Director General (Admin), Directorate General of Health Services, and Professor Dr Niyaz Ahmed, Senior Director, Laboratory Sciences and Services Division, icddr,b, was present.

Photo: From the left- Honorable Secretary, Health Services Division, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Honorable Additional Director General (Admin), Directorate General of Health Services, President of Asia-Pacific Biosafety Association, and Scientist from World Health Organization addressing the audience during the conference.

Technical sessions of the conference:

The technical sessions of the conference were started with global updates on biosafety and biosecurity. Dr Kazunobu Kojima, Scientist, Country Health Emergency, Preparedness & IHR (CPI), World Health Organization, Dr James Welch, Elizabeth R Griffin Foundation, Center for Global Health Science and Security, Dr Pawan Angra, Division of Global Health Protection, Center for Global Health, CDC, Atlanta, GA, Dr Chua Teck Mean, Biosafety Consultant, Temasek Life Science Laboratory, National University of Singapore, Singapore, and Dr Stacie E. Dunkle, Epidemiologist, Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Bangladesh, presented updates on respective areas of expertise.

Exhibition and Poster Presentation

Photo: Honorable Mayor of North Dhaka City Corporation inquiring about the use of locally produced sharps containers when he visited the exhibition booth of RFL-Plastics Ltd.

icddr,b has designed and developed sharps containers and biohazard bags to promote safe and secured packaging of biohazardous materials in Bangladesh. RFL plastics was employed to manufacture these products under a project funded by Biosecurity Engagement program of the United States Department of States. Natasha K Griffith, Associate Director of Operations, High Containment Core at Georgia State University, USA, was the collaborator for Dr Asadulghani, Head of Biosafety, icddr,b. 35, 000 sharps containers and 30,000 biohazard bags were distribute to 20 Institutes in Bangladesh to initiate the standard practices of biohazard waste packaging. Practically this has eight times reduced the waste packaging cost comparing with the cost of waste packaging using packaging materials imported from foreign countries.

Photo: Honorable Mayor of North Dhaka City Corporation was

familiarized with the activities of ESCO, the titanium sponsor of the 14th A-PBA biorisk conference. ESCO Micro Pte Ltd came forward as the Titanium sponsor for the 14th A-PBA biorisk conference in Bangladesh. In addition to producing different types of Biosafety Cabinets, ESCO is producing other high-quality essential products for biomedical research and diagnostics. Honorable Mayor visited the ESCO exhibition booth to know about their services.

Photo: Honorable Mayor of North Dhaka City Corporation visited the

exhibition booth of OMC and knew about their activity.

Honorable Mayor also visited the booth of Overseas Marketing Company to know about their services and their contribution in biomedical research and

diagnostics in Bangladesh.

Preconference workshop sessions: 17 – 18 Sept 2019

Nine workshop sessions were conducted by world renowned experts. From the left- Professor Dr Lim Yang Mooi (Malaysia), Dr Cheng Siang Tan (Malaysia), Mr Dan Yoong (Singapore), Mr Kenny Chee (Singapore), Ms Saraswathy Subramaniam (Malaysia), Dr Julie E. Fischer (USA), Mr David Lam (Singapore), Ar. Steve Breslin (USA), and Dr Philippe Stroot (Belgium). 101 Bangladeshi participants and 30 foreign participants from different countries in the Asia-Pacific participated in these training sessions. Trainer were certified for the participation in these events. In addition to that 22 Bangladeshi professionals were certified as Institutional Biosafety Officers (IBO) based on their past record and participation in the conference and preconference events. A ToR for IBOs is also available on the BBBS website for their use in the academia and other relevant scientific arenas in the country.

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Technical sessions of the conference (cont.):

From left- Professor Dr Guizhen Wu, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China; Dr Prasad Kuduvalli - Health Security Partners, USA; Dr Mahbuba Jamil, Laboratory Containment of Poliovirus, Bangladesh; Prof. Dr BK Tyagi, Hyderabad University, Hyderabad; Dr Abidur Rahman, Iwate University, Japan; Dr Trinh Thi Thanh Huong, National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, Vietnam.

From left- Dr. Richa Sood, National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases, Bhopal, India; Bhajan Bhagwant Singh, NSF International; Mr Steven Breslin, NIH, USA; Dan Yoong, World BioHazTec Inc. Singapore; Prof Dr Be-Nazir Ahmed, DGHS, Bangladesh; Professor Dr William J. Liu, Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China.

From left- Dr Vikram Saini, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India; Dr Md Giasuddin, BLRI, Bangladesh; Dr Latiful Bari, Center for Advanced Research in Sciences, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh; Dr drh. Joko Pamungkas, IPB University, Bogor, Indonesia; Dr Jiban Krishna Biswas, International Rice Research Institute, Bangladesh; Professor Dr Md Tofazzal Islam, Director, Institute of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, Gazipur, Bangladesh.

From left- Professor Dr Viji Vijayan, National University of Singapore, Singapore; Mr David Lam, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore; Dr Nicolas Steenkeste, Foundation Mérieux, Lyon, France; Dr Philippe Stroot, Tournai, Wallonia, Belgium; and Professor Ts. Dr. Lim Yang Mooi, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malaysia. Photo: Speakers of different technical sessions during the 14th APBA conference.

Speaker of different sessions discussed on Global Updates on Biosafety and Biosecurity, Current Status of Biosafety and Biosecurity in Asia Pacific, Emerging Science and Technology – New Challenges, Facility and Biocontainment, Public Health – Emerging and Re-emerging Threats, Public Health – Food and Agricultural Safety and Security, and Evolving Threats in Biosecurity & Bioterrorism. Ultimate goal of this conference was to focus on the contribution of biosafety and biosecurity in the sustainable development in health and agriculture. For further detail, visit http://bdbiosafetysecurity.org/A-PBA-Annual-Confere, the official website of the society.

Closing ceremony of the conference:

Mr Sheikh Yusuf Harun, Honorable Secretary, Health Education and Family Welfare, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, was present as the Chief Guest during the closing ceremony of the conference. He expressed his complete satisfaction for organizing such an important event in Bangladesh. He specially thanked the scientific committee for selecting timely theme of the conference to contribute to the sustainable development on the Nation.

Photo: Honorable Secretary, Health Education and Family Welfare Division, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, addressed the audience during the closing ceremony of the conference. President, Bangladesh Biosafety and Biosecurity Society acknowledged organizer, sponsors, participants, and the fellow colleagues for their contribution for the successful event.

Executive committee members of A-PBA and BBBS, participants, and delegates witnessed the auspicious event. President of A-PBA Dr Saraswathy Subramaniam expressed her deep satisfaction for successfully organizing the conference in Bangladesh. The conference was concluded by the closing remarks from President on BBBS Dr Asadulghani. In his closing remarks he expressed his gratitude to Honorable Mayor of Dhaka North City Corporation, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Directorate General of Health Services, all the supporting organizations, sponsors, and the organizing partners for the essential support for the program.

Photo: Chief Editor of the journal “Biosafety and Health” displaying the journal during the 14th A-PBA biorisk conference at the exhibition booth.

Biosafety and Health is an open access, peer-reviewed journal to publish original research findings and thoughts in any aspect connected with public health and biosafety. Topics include but are not limited to - identification and characterization of biological threats; origin, transmission, and evolution of biological agents; surveillance, risk assessment, and early-warning; prevention, diagnosis, and therapeutics; synthetic biotechnology, genome editing, and other new biotechniques; and policies and standards. Biosafety and Health is published quarterly. Article types include Original Research, Reviews, Perspectives, Correspondence, Case Report, News and Views, Highlights, Comments and policy forum, etc. For more information visit: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/biosafety-and-health/

A total of 25 abstracts were displayed during the poster presentations. Poster presented were on general and applied biosafety and biosecurity issues and on medical waste management.

Photo: From the top- Judges listening to the poster presenters about their work, Dr Abdullah Mohammad Shohael from Jahangirnagar University, Dr Salma Ahmed from Mymensingh Medical College, Ms Sharmin Zaman from Centre for Advanced Research in Sciences and Dr Atiar Rahman from Chittagong University presenting their posters. Ms Aroem from Medical Faculty Universitas Indonesia Naroeni and Ms Nadia Ali Rimi from icddr,b received the best poster awards for best poster designing and presenting poster, respectively.

Dr Md Salimullah, Director General of National Institute of Biotechnology, Savar, Dhaka and Dr Chandan K Roy, Associate Professor, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, were the judges for the poster sessions.