Professor Ian Ramshaw will lead the
interdisciplinary team at the National
Centre for Biosecurity that is
protecting Australia from disease.

Smallpox. SARS. Drug-resistant tuberculosis. Bird flu. HIV. All these are infectious diseases that can threaten large human populations. Governments and health authorities are scrambling to develop protective strategies against these biosecurity risks, which could be spread via natural means or a terrorist attack.
 
The new National Centre for Biosecurity (NCB), launched by Vice-Chancellor Professor Ian Chubb recently, will work with government agencies to identify and prepare for potential biosecurity threats.

The NCB, based in the ANU College of Medicine and Health Sciences, is the first in Australia to bring together a large multidisciplinary team to address the potential threats to the nation and region posed by infectious diseases. Led by immunologist Professor Ian Ramshaw, the centre pulls together microbiologists, epidemiologists, lawyers, ethicists, security analysts, infectious disease modellers, policy experts, and integration and implementation scientists.

This marshalling of experts is designed to address five key challenges: fast-moving natural disease outbreaks such as pandemic influenza, bioterrorism, the risks posed by research into pathogens, the implications of emerging technologies, and the impact of disease on society.

Professor Chubb says the research will “help us to resolve, solve, avoid or be prepared for emerging threats and technologies”.

“An important part of this work will be an emphasis on horizon-scanning capabilities. We won’t just be addressing some of the issues that confront us today or tomorrow. We will actually have some over-the-horizon radar going so that we can begin to position ourselves.”

Professor Ramshaw says the NCB will take a real-world approach to the complex problems of biosecurity, and provide an essential link between the many disciplines that relate to biosecurity issues.

“The multidisciplinary nature of the centre will put it in an excellent position to provide the best possible information to policy makers, and develop biosecurity research links and training in our region,” Ramshaw says.

“We know that the emergence and re-emergence of infectious diseases are a significant threat to human security at the moment. Smallpox killed between 300 and 500 million people in 20th century – three times more than died in war – and the re-emergence of the disease would be devastating. The SARS virus didn’t just affect the people it infected – it caused enormous disruption and panic, hampered the movement of people and had a significant economic impact.

“The SARS experience highlighted the many legal and ethical issues we face, and the choices that have to be made between wider public health and individual human rights.

“As science makes great leaps forward it becomes easier and easier to make potentially devastating biological agents, which raises numerous legal, ethical, security and policy issues. Should sensitive research be published? Should research be subject to greater regulation? Who gets to decide?

“Ethical and regulatory issues need to be addressed. For instance, in the event of a disease outbreak, can a government quarantine citizens, restrict travel and impose mandatory treatment? These are all reasons why biosecurity research is so important.

“Australia is not an island and many of our nearest neighbours have faced the rise of new and re-emerging diseases, including the spread of a drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis. Working with our neighbours is essential to minimising the threat. The NCB will take a regional approach, forming partnerships in the Asia-Pacific region. It will seek to engage and inform policy makers at home and abroad.”