“Laboratories working with biological agents and toxins operate under rigorous regulations and requirements to provide the appropriate levels of protection for the public through personnel training on biosafety and biosecurity, bioethics, occupational health, and quality management.”
He said such training is designed to meet quality and regulatory objectives and to provide individuals with the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to be competent in their assigned duties and responsibilities. The training he said will help them emphasize the need to exercise a general duty of care to protect the health and safety of individuals as well as the environment.
Director of China CDC Dr Kan Biao said the reason for the training is to make sure that any outbreak that occurred should meet the technicians well equipped to defend themselves and the public.
He said they have organised this training in two batches as they want to make sure that they are able to train all the lab technicians working in Western Area to be fully equipped and ready.
“The first batch training ended Wednesday Afternoon as they started on Monday and the second batch started immediately after the first batch training on the same Wednesday. This second batch training too will be for two and half days as it will end on Friday and all of them will receive certificates to show that they have been trained on combating biohazard and quality management.”
Dr Kan said laboratory incidents may lead to significant costs in time, personnel efforts, and patient outcomes as well as potential risks to the heath security of individuals, communities and the environment. A vigorous quality management system he said does not guarantee an incident-free organization but it can rapidly identify issues when they occur and help prevent them from reoccurring.
“Strengthening an organizational culture of biosafety and responsible conduct in the life sciences is an intrinsic part of a quality management system and it implies devoting training resources and consideration to: management systems (organization and leadership); leadership and personnel behavior; principles for guiding decisions and behavior; and beliefs and attitudes on biosafety and responsible conduct of research.”
He said performing assigned duties and responsibilities in a safe, secure, and responsible manner is a core competency and must be emphasized during the competency assessment which affirms that training is effective and personnel competently apply knowledge, skills, and abilities to meet the standards of their professional practice.
He called on all the participants to make good use of the training as they are the first line of defence when there is any outbreak and they must be well equipped to keep themselves alive so that they can help the populace to win any such battle.
