Ms Fiona Thien, Dr Fera Ibrahim, Dr Anis Karuniawati and Ms Louise Freckelton
Collaborating on Biosafety and Biosecurity BY Louise Freckelton
The emergence of new infectious diseases such as SARS, H5N1 or bird flu and H1N1 or swine flu has become an increasing concern particularly in the region and consequently issues of biosafety and biosecurity have come into focus. As a result it was timely that in October 2009, Associate Professor Alison Kesson, Head of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology at the Children’s Hospital Westmead and member of Sydney Medical School’s Discipline of Paediatrics and Child Health and Dr Belinda Herring, Lecturer in Medical Microbiology and a member of the Department of Infectious Diseases and Immunology at Sydney Medical School were invited to take part in the Universitas Indonesia’s Biosafety and Biosecurity Symposium.
The symposium was an initiative of the Universitas Indonesia (UI) which provided a day-long forum where researchers and academics from Rumah Sakit Dr Cipto Mangunkusumo (RSCM) and UI could exchange the latest information on laboratory safety and dealing with highly pathogenic material. “The symposium was extremely informative”, says Dr Belinda Herring, “of particular relevance and importance was a presentation by the Director General of Indonesia’s National Institute of Health Research and Development, Professor
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