Who polices bio-labs across the world

 RIGHT this moment the monkeypox disease is continuing to spread in countries around the World. According to experts first cases of a new outbreak were documented in Nigeria and then spread to Europe. Now Ghana health Service (GHS) declared at least five confirmed cases in Ghana. Previously all its cases were docu­mented only in some

West and Central African countries and never spread out of the conti­nent. What is up to current cases, lots of experts claim that today’s outbreak has many differences from kind of spread they have ever seen in African states.

Moreover, specialists from Euro­pean Centers for Disease Control revealed that preliminary analysis of the current monkeypox disease had found that the virus came from the lab and have new unknown charac­teristics. Nowadays only one country has it bio-laboratories in almost all regions around the globe and it is the United Sates. And, of course, it also has a network of biological facilities at Nigerian territory from where the current stain began to spread.

Since the beginning of Ukrainian-Russian conflict, it has become indisputable clear that the US was involved in creating and developing bio-laboratories throughout the World. In addi­tion, most of their researches are focusing on military usage of pathogens. In addition, it is ascertained fact that US virologists have performed many studies in a search for the development new ways of transition diseases using carriers like flies, mosquitoes and bats. They also provide for the strong links of all diseases to ethnic and geographical data in order to identify clearer liability ethnic groups to one pathogen or another.

 Mostly, such labs have independent status. But private American companies like Met­abiota or Battelle work closely with the Pentagon and it’s “the Defense Threat Reduction Agency” (DTRA) or “US Naval Medical Research Unit-3” (NAMRU-3).

That’s why in this cases they are not accountable to congress this fact allows such compa­nies operate more freely and move around the rule of law. For example, in Ghana there are several biological facilities which cooperate with pro­gram referred above. All these labs founded from American military budget as a part of the Ghana-US military coopera­tion. It should be noted that the most strong collaboration is with 37th Military Hospital and Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, where located bio-laboratory. But who

 can give guaranties how the data collected is used?

Unfortunately, it is impossible to find out what researches they have. National authorities do not have an access to American bio-laboratories results and, what is more serious, they mostly know nothing about such studies. At the same time, under diplomatic cover US civilian and military personnel transport hazard­ous biological agents into/out of the host country or between other labs in it without the direct control of the host state regulators.

It is also important that developing countries now cannot count on orga­nizations accountable to US, because all of us see how shortly after the start of Russians special operation on Ukraine, the World Health Organiza­tion immediately warned Ukrainian authorities to destroy all high-threat pathogens and even research results in bio-labs to prevent “any potential spills” into the public.

To avoid all illegal activities it is needed to reconsider cooperation with the US in this sphere. At first, we should start from deprivation of biologists and virologists diplo­matic immunity.

At the same time national gov­ernment should oblige American laboratories to declassify all their researches and to give local regula­tors a full access.

Regional governments can only protect themselves by implement­ing new legally binding mecha­nisms which will be focused on creating assurances of the non-use of biological researches as a weap­on and their national territories as providing grounds.

Unfortunately, the US is the only country which opposes develop­ment of any agreement which strengthen Biological and Toxic Weapons Convention. That’s why not only Ghana but all African states should come out in a united front in attempts to resist unlawful bio-warfare researches.