A few weeks before the Paris Olympic Games, health authorities are on alert. The expected arrival of millions of visitors raises fears of the appearance of new viruses and bacteria in the territory. Which could spread quickly and cause us to relive an epidemic situation.
At the head of the bridge to avoid risks, a unit of the Pasteur Institute responsible for identifying pathogens. The Emergency Biological Intervention Unit (CIBU) was created in 2002, following the September 11 attacks. The objective was then to counter the risk of a bioterrorist attack, in a context of alerts about mail contaminated with anthrax. Its agents take turns 7 days a week, 24 hours a day to detect and identify any infectious agent, virus or bacteria.
Rapid mobilization capacity
Avian flu and other flu variants are of course at the center of concerns, but also “ viruses or bacteria brought by bioterrorism such as the plague or anthrax”, explain Anne Le Flèche-Matéos, head of bacteria identification at CIBU, speaking to France Info. The context of the Olympic and Paralympic Games is in fact particularly sensitive.
In the event of an alert, the cell is activated by the General Directorate of Health. Drivers are able to collect the sample and transmit it to an on-call pair at the Pasteur Institute. There, it is examined in a P3 mini-laboratory, that is to say a completely confined laboratory where the air is renewed to avoid any risk of contamination. It only takes a few hours for Cibu teams to identify a pathogen. During the Olympic Games, two on-call teams will be permanently available.
