The National Institute of Virology (NIV) in

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

is a national research institute concentrating on

biosafety Biosafety is the prevention of large-scale loss of biological integrity, focusing both on ecology and human health. These prevention mechanisms include conduction of regular reviews of the biosafety in laboratory settings, as well as strict guidel ...

. It has a national laboratory site dedicated to identification and eradication of

Emerging infectious diseases ''Emerging Infectious Diseases'' (EID) is an open-access, peer-reviewed journal published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). EID is a public domain journal and covers global instances of new and reemerging infectious diseas ...

, as well as efforts in

biological warfare Biological warfare, also known as germ warfare, is the use of biological toxins or infectious agents such as bacteria, viruses, insects, and fungi with the intent to kill, harm or incapacitate humans, animals or plants as an act of war. Bio ...

. Aforementioned is a BSL3 laboratory managed by the

University of Karachi The University of Karachi ( sd, ; informally Karachi University, KU, or UoK) is a public research university located in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan. Established in June 1951 by an act of Parliament and as a successor to the University of Sindh (whic ...

for the Ministry of Health. Karachi University's International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences established the National Institute of Virology at September 19, 2019. The NIV assumed greater importance during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

outbreak in Pakistan, a disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. It developed its own COVID-19 testing kits, which can be produced at drastically lower costs than imported kits, allowing a greater number of citizens to get tested. When the outbreak took place in Pakistan, the

state government A state government is the government that controls a subdivision of a country in a federal form of government, which shares political power with the federal or national government. A state government may have some level of political autonomy, or ...

Sindh Sindh (; ; ur, , ; historically romanized as Sind) is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the southeastern region of the country, Sindh is the third-largest province of Pakistan by land area and the second-largest province ...

worked beside Pakistan's federal government's Ministry of Health to develop vaccines and medications for treatment of infectious diseases.

References

COVID-19 pandemic in Pakistan Research institutes in Pakistan Organizations established in 2019 Virology institutes Medical research institutes in Pakistan Organizations associated with the COVID-19 pandemic World Health Organization collaborating centres Infectious disease organizations Biological research institutes Microbiology institutes Laboratories in Pakistan {{Pakistan-stub