{"id":132,"date":"2021-05-10T11:16:34","date_gmt":"2021-05-10T15:16:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ceid\/?page_id=132"},"modified":"2026-08-03T14:23:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T18:23:23","slug":"spu","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ceid\/projects-partnerships\/spu\/","title":{"rendered":"Special Pathogens Unit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span>Boston Medical Center\u2019s <\/span>Special Pathogens Unit (SPU)<span> is a state-of-the-art maximum containment facility for patients admitted to BMC with severe emerging infectious diseases requiring care in containment. The SPU enhances clinical facilities at BMC by incorporating some of the engineering and safety measures used in specialized hospital facilities and research containment laboratories specifically designed to minimize nosocomial transmission of highly contagious and hazardous diseases. The SPU was recognized as the designated site for care of patients with highly communicable diseases by the Massachusetts Department of Health and Boston Public Health Commission. CEID faculty provide subject matter expertise in clinical management, infection control, and emerging infectious diseases medical countermeasures. SPU also serves as the designated medical facility providing support to BU&#8217;s maximum containment research program at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/neidl\/\">National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories<\/a> (NEIDL).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In January 2026, Boston Medical Center was selected as a recipient of the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/netec.org\/2026\/01\/06\/netec-announces-selected-grant-recipients-of-nsps-stand-award-to-strengthen-special-pathogen-preparedness-nationwide\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">National Special Pathogen System (NSPS) Level 2 STAND Award<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a funding opportunity provided by the National Emerging Special Pathogens Training and Education Center (<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/netec.org\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">NETEC<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">). CEID faculty <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ceid\/about-the-center\/team\/robin-ingalls-md\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dr. Robin Ingalls<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> leads the team of faculty and staff <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">including additional CEID faculty <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ceid\/about-the-center\/team\/jai-marathe\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dr. Jai Marathe<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ceid\/about-the-center\/team\/cassandra-pierre\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dr. Cassandra Pierre<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, to enhance our readiness, training, and infrastructure to safely deliver effective special pathogen care. This award supports our ongoing commitment to strengthening healthcare preparedness and protecting our community during high-consequence infectious disease outbreaks.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Boston Medical Center\u2019s Special Pathogens Unit (SPU) is a state-of-the-art maximum containment facility for patients admitted to BMC with severe emerging infectious diseases requiring care in containment. The SPU enhances clinical facilities at BMC by incorporating some of the engineering and safety measures used in specialized hospital facilities and research containment laboratories specifically designed to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8122,"featured_media":0,"parent":124,"menu_order":3,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ceid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/132"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ceid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ceid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ceid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ceid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ceid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8865,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ceid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/132\/revisions\/8865"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ceid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ceid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}