BIOSAFETY, BIOSECURITY AND “DISEASE X”: DEFINITIONS, GLOBAL AND NATIONAL PROBLEMS, WAYS OF SOLUTION

Abstract

The paper discusses the issues of modern biological threats, in particular “disease Х”, the consequences of artificial disasters, which can be different in scale and unpredictable in terms of biorisks, etc., approaches to defining the concepts of biological safety and biological protection, as well as ways to improve the biological safety system in Ukraine. Given the diversity of modern bio-threats and bio-risks, the term “biosecurity” should be a broad concept and cover all their elements. Due to the ambiguity of the interpretation of this term in various literature sources, we offer our own vision of it, namely: “Biosafety is the preservation of a state of equilibrium between the human population, flora and fauna, on the one hand, and their pathogens, on the other hand, characterized by the absence or controllability of adverse events that could lead to the spread of particularly dangerous pathogens and cause an emergency in the field of healthcare, animal husbandry or agriculture”.

Ensuring biosecurity is possible through the functioning of an appropriate sustainable biosafety and biosecurity system at the regional and national levels, which is able to properly counter both emerging and routine bio-threats. Although much has already been done in Ukraine to build a biosafety system, it needs further development. It should be a comprehensive system that will involve all relevant central authorities, agencies and organizations at all administrative levels. As for the purely medical component of this system, the main place in it belongs to the epidemiological surveillance system, whose
functions remain supervision, detection, analysis, forecasting, making and implementation of management decisions aimed at preventing and counteracting biorisks.