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Biosafety in TB Laboratories
Learning ObjectivesBiosafety
What is Biosafety?
Biosafety is safe handling and containment of infectious microorganisms and hazardous biological materials.
Why Biosafety?
Infections which are obtained through laboratory or laboratory-related activities are known as Laboratory Acquired Infections (LAI). These infections are major occupational health hazards and are a cause of concern for the safety of the staff working in laboratories.
Routes of entry of LAI
There are multiple routes of entry and transfer of toxic material through the body and its transfer to various organs and systems.
The most predominant routes of LAI are:
- Nose - Inhalation of infectious aerosols
- Mouth - Ingestion or exposure through mouth pipetting or touching mouth or eyes with contaminated fingers or contaminated object
- Skin and mucous membrane:
- Spills and splashes onto skin and mucous membranes
- Parenteral inoculations with syringes or other contaminated sharps
- Animal bites and scratches from research laboratories or activities
Biosafety guidelines are prepared to promote:
- Safe microbiological practices
- Safety equipment and facility safeguards for reducing LAIs
- To protect public health and the environment
Biosafety in Tuberculosis TB laboratory (lab)
In a TB lab, the primary risk for infection transmission is the aerosol contaminated with TB bacilli when:
- TB patients walk into the laboratory for specimen collection or other testing and may be a source of droplet infection if they cough during laboratory visits
- Procedures such as centrifugation, vortexing, and vigorous shaking generate significant aerosols that are biohazardous
Key points to consider for M. TB as a biological hazard are given in the table below.
|
MYCOBACTERIUM TUBERCULOSIS (M. TB) AS BIOLOGICAL HAZARD |
RISK FACTORS |
|---|---|
|
Pathogenicity |
M.TB exposure may lead to infection 5-10% of infected persons will develop TB disease |
|
Primary route of transmission |
Inhalation |
|
Stability |
Tubercle bacilli can remain viable for extended periods in the environment |
|
Infectious dose |
As little as 10 bacilli can infect humans |
|
Effective Vaccine (for adults) |
No vaccine is available for adults |
|
Effective treatment for strain susceptibility to different medicines |
Yes |
|
Effective treatment for MUltiple Drug Resistant (MDR), Extensively Drug Resistant (XDR) strains |
Yes, but more difficult to treat than susceptible strains |
Standards for TB Lab Biosafety
- Standards are prepared based on the recommendations from the WHO expert group in 2012.
- Standards use a procedural approach for the assessment of risk.
- It establishes minimum requirements necessary to ensure biosafety during TB microscopy, culture, drug-susceptibility testing (DST) and molecular testing in different countries and epidemiological settings.
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