DVIDS – News – Defense Threat Reduction Agency Celebrates Vaccine Lab Upgrades with Government of Kenya

Defense Threat Reduction Agency Celebrates Vaccine Lab Upgrades with Government of Kenya

Nairobi, Kenya—Members of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) recently participated in a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Kenya Veterinary Vaccine Production Institute (KEVEVAPI) to celebrate the completed upgrades of the Effluent Treatment System (ETS) Dec. 7, in Nairobi, Kenya.

In coordination with the Government of Kenya and other partners, DTRA’s Biological Threat Reduction Program (BTRP) under the Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) program, implemented improvements and renovations at six different human and animal health facilities across the country. The renovations at KEVAVAPI are the first at this facility since 1952, with a new design that offers several updates that will increase vaccine production and ensure biosafety and security at the facility. The improved design and installation is provides important redundancy, allowing for maintenance on half of the system, while the other half is available for vaccine production, eliminating production down time. Another benefit to the renovations is all system components are above ground, allowing easy inspection and maintenance adding more reduction in safety risk and labor costs.

Dr. Robert Pope, Director of the CTR program at DTRA, said KEVAVAPI and DTRA’s partnership not only ensures Kenya is a safer country, but together contributes to the wider Global Health Security vision to increase regional, continental and global standards in disease detection, diagnostics and monitoring.

“We greatly appreciate the government of Kenya’s commitment to the detection and prevention of zoonotic diseases,” said Pope. “Our Kenyan partners hold an enormous amount of my personal respect for demonstrating that multinational partnerships are the foundation on which global health security stands,” he said.

Kenya partner and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of KEVAVAPI, Dr. Jane Wachira, said she appreciates how far they have come working with DTRA the past 11 years, beginning with biorisk management training provided by Sandia National Labs under a DTRA contract.

“DTRA created awareness to us on how we need to deal with biosafety and biosecurity in our country,” said Wachira. “Our partners at DTRA introduced bio-risk management systems to us and whatever development we do here, we are taking into account the biosafety and biosecurity,” she said.

The commissioning of the new ETS ensured proper pathogen containment capacity at KEVEVAPI to reduce the risk of accidental release. The renovations strengthen the work already being done by the Kenyan partners and reduces the risk of widespread outbreaks of diseases in Kenya and on the African continent.

Members at the ceremony, including Pope, were invited by the Government of Kenya to plant a tree at KEVAVAPI symbolizing multinational cooperation between the two nations.

“Each time I return to Africa, I think about that tree growing strong in the Kenya soil,” said Pope. “Our partnership has deep roots that ensure we remain grounded to our shared vision of disease prevention. I hope that as those trees grow, so too, does biosafety and security on the African Continent,” he said.

For more information on DTRA’s Biological Threat Reduction Program in Kenya and other activities around the world, visit www.dtra.mil.