{"id":30430,"date":"2020-03-24T07:51:10","date_gmt":"2020-03-24T03:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mythdetector.ge\/myth\/six-reasons-that-make-the-lugar-lab-unique-in-the-region-and-help-fight-covid-19\/"},"modified":"2023-04-14T10:15:17","modified_gmt":"2023-04-14T06:15:17","slug":"six-reasons-that-make-the-lugar-lab-unique-in-the-region-and-help-fight-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mythdetector.ge\/en\/six-reasons-that-make-the-lugar-lab-unique-in-the-region-and-help-fight-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Six reasons that make the Lugar Lab unique in the region and help fight COVID-19"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the importance of Richard Lugar Center for Public Health Research, popularly known as Lugar Lab, increases in the fight against COVID-19, the pro-Kremlin media, which have exploited various conspiracy theories about the Lugar Laboratory for years now, takes efforts to diminish the importance of this diagnostic center by declaring recent positive assessments of the Lab as overrated. For example, on 12 March, the pro-Kremlin media outlet News Front Georgia published<\/a> an article titled \u201cDim-witted UNM supporters and Lugar Laboratory\u201d in which the author claimed that any clinic for infectious diseases could no less successfully diagnose coronavirus cases and a positive role of Lugar Lab must not be exaggerated. The same news outlet claimed<\/a> in its publication of 21 March that Georgia, in reality, gets help from China, not from the USA.<\/p>\n

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News Front Georgia: <\/strong>\u201cAny clinic for infectious diseases could diagnose cases of coronavirus as successfully as Lugar Lab. Our neighboring Azerbaijan and Armenia as well as our big neighbor Russia does not find it difficult to diagnose coronavirus either. Thus, putting it mildly, the positive role of the Lugar Laboratory must not be exaggerated, though the medical personnel working there needs public support in their good endeavor too. This, however, does not relate to the operation of this Lab as a whole and those doubts that exist about this institution among society and for good reason.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

News Front Georgia\u2019s allegations about the Lugar Laboratory are unfounded because the Lab, which was built with the USD 300 million worth assistance from the USA, plays a crucial role in diagnosing coronavirus. In her comments to the Myth Detector, the manager of Lugar center, Maia Alkhazishvili, listed six reasons that make the laboratory a unique institution in the region and facilitates the fight against coronavirus:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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  1. \u00a0The laboratory\u2019s infrastructure and logistics base are unique in the region.<\/li>\n
  2. \u00a0It is the only laboratory in the region with a high biosafety level (BSL 3).<\/li>\n
  3. \u00a0It has a genome lab.<\/li>\n
  4. \u00a0It is manned with highly qualified personnel.<\/li>\n
  5. \u00a0It is the best learning resource for interested young people.<\/li>\n
  6. \u00a0It serves the health of population of Georgia.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    What are the advantages of Lugar Lab over other clinics?\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

    According to Maia Alkhazishvili, state-of-the-art technologies, highly qualified personnel and new diagnostic methods ensure the readiness of the laboratory to timely respond to any new challenge.<\/p>\n

    The Lugar Lab\u2019s flu and other respiratory diseases laboratory is accredited by the World Health Organization and acts as a reference lab. \u201cEngagement of the reference lab always enhances in diagnosing the first wave of any new infection and once the methods are validated and verified and protocols and algorithms developed, the share of involvement of peripheral and clinical labs increases in correlation with the epidemic situation,\u201d said Alkhazishvili and described how the task of diagnosing could be also extended to other labs at the next stage, with the Lugar Lab acting as the reference lab: periodic verification of positive cases, external quality control of labs methodical instructions and genome sequencing.<\/p>\n

    Doctor of Medicine Maia Butsashvili, specializing in infectious diseases, emphasized the following advantages of the Lugar Lab:<\/p>\n