CDC Mulls Opening Hawaii Facility

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta is considering expanding to Honolulu to be closer to Asia and share a laboratory with the University of Hawaii.

Michael Sage, CDC portfolio management project director, spent time in talks in Honolulu about a business plan for the idea, the Honolulu Advertiser reported Tuesday.

The university’s Asia-Pacific Institute of Tropical Medicine and Infectious Diseases has a National Institutes of Health grant to build a secure laboratory, known as a bio-level safety 3 facility, which would mean the CDC would not have to build its own.

Institute Director Duane Gubler was director of the CDC’s Fort Collins, Colo., infectious disease laboratory before joining Hawaii’s medical school three years ago and told the Advertiser the partnership would be a good fit.

They (CDC personnel) know the Asia-Pacific region is critical to the health of the planet, Gubler said, pointing out in recent years Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome and bird flu both broke in Asia.