Indeed, the emergence of so many new infectious diseases has helped ignite something of a building boom in high-tech containment laboratories worldwide. But a spate of newly built labs and upgraded facilities has erased that casual assurance of exclusivity. In fact, so many new laboratories are being built or upgraded that it is difficult to get an accurate count of them. It belongs to a set of four designated safety levels for working with a full range of microorganisms, starting at P1 with the relatively safe and extending at P4 to the highly dangerous bacterial and viral pathogens requiring maximum containment and the most extreme safety precautions. Adding to the confusion is the range of design options used in building such facilities.
Exotic creatures require exotic cages.
The Center is unique among BSL-4 labs in being able to handle both human and animal diseases, infected livestock, and zoonotic agents that can jump from animals to people. France has built a new BSL-4 lab over the top of the former Institut Pasteur building in Lyons. This ultramodern construct of metal, glass, and plastic rests on concrete stilts and will complement Europe's oldest BSL-4 lab at the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg, Germany. Farther to the north, Sweden is building its first BSL-4 lab at the Institute for Infection Control in Solna. The United Kingdom has two such labs under construction.