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. 2022 Nov-Dec;20(6):488-496.
doi: 10.1089/hs.2022.0030. Epub 2022 Nov 16.

A Multilingual Tool for Standardized Laboratory Biosafety and Biosecurity Assessment and Monitoring

Arnaud Orelle  1   2 , Abdoulaye Nikiema  3   4 , Arsen Zakaryan  5 , Adilya A Albetkova  6 , Mah-Séré Keita  7 , Mark A Rayfield  8 , Leonard F Peruski  9 , Antoine Pierson  10
Affiliations

A Multilingual Tool for Standardized Laboratory Biosafety and Biosecurity Assessment and Monitoring

Arnaud Orelle et al. Health Secur. 2022 Nov-Dec.

Abstract

Control of infectious diseases requires the handling of infectious materials by both clinical and public health laboratories with exposure risks for laboratory personnel and environment. A comprehensive tool for assessing the capacity to manage these risks could enable the development of action plans for mitigation. Under the framework of the Global Health Security Agenda action package for biosafety and biosecurity, the authors developed a tool dedicated to assessing laboratory biosafety and biosecurity. The Biosafety and Biosecurity Laboratory Assessment Tool (BSS LAT) assesses the status of all laboratory biosafety core requirements across 10 different modules. It consists of a standardized spreadsheet-based tool that provides automatic scoring. It is designed to support national, regional, and global efforts to strengthen biosafety in clinical, public health, and veterinary laboratories. The BSS LAT was first used in Burkina Faso in collaboration with the African Society for Laboratory Medicine and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to support the country in strengthening their biorisk management system. Since then, it has been successfully used in other countries (ie, Armenia, Burundi, Cameroon, Ghana, Guinea, Kazakhstan, Liberia), various settings (medical and veterinary laboratories), and translated into several languages (eg, English, French, Russian). The BSS LAT is a multipurpose tool that assists with standardization of biosafety and biosecurity requirements for all laboratories working with infectious materials, serves as a self-assessment guide for laboratories to develop improvement plans and reinforce capacities, and serves as a training guide for individual laboratories and networks or at the national level. The BSS LAT can also be used as a monitoring tool for the assessment of biosafety and biosecurity across all laboratories working with infectious materials at the national, regional, and global levels.

Keywords: Biosafety protection; Biosecurity; Global Health Security Agenda; Laboratory safety; Risk management.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Example of questions listed in the tool. Closed answers and open comments are possible; the indicator score is calculated in real time as the user completes the questions.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Example of “Premises and Workflow” module organization.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Overview of the summary page (and graphic depiction) after completing the tool.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Overview of the language tab and language switch button (cell A3).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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