But the facility, which dates to 2005, needs to be replaced, CDC officials said in interviews this week. The administration is asking Congress for $350 million to build a new high-containment lab complex on the CDC campus. The facility is also one of only two labs in the world working with live smallpox virus. In 2014, the labs came under scrutiny because of incidents involving the mishandling of dangerous pathogens, including Ebola, anthrax and bird flu. Those problems involved human error and breakdowns in protocol, and prompted an overhaul in lab safety and creation of an associate director for lab safety.

Source: Washington Post February 23, 2018 18:04 UTC