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A report concerning lab safety at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) set up by a board of external safety specialists uncovered that the organization’s research center training is not fails to meet all standard requirements.
The board, comprising a team of 11 specialists in biosafety, lab science and exploration, has severely criticized the CDC’s practices and dubbed the agency’s commitment to safety regulations as conflicting and inadequate.
The four-page review was finished in January and published on CDC’s webpage this week. The experts said that they are highly worried that the CDC is very likely to lose its credibility. The report panel was set up by CDC in an attempt to enhance lab security in July after two accidents and different issues that took place at the agency.
The report has outlined the panel’s discoveries and provided recommendations in the wake of examining CDC labs, having meetings with CDC staff and a survey regarding the lab safety procedures at CDC.
In response to the suggestions, CDC Chief Operating Officer Sherri Berger declared:
“It’s critical that we continue to solicit feedback on how we can improve our operations, especially functions as critical as lab safety. We brought this group of external experts together over the summer to assist us with identifying and implementing solutions, of which many are already underway.”
The document mentioned various prominent and perilous bungles that occured at CDC labs. One event took place in May, whereby avian flu tests were accidentally blended with the destructive H5N1 flu virus and afterward delivered to a USDA lab.
An alternate incident occurred in December when staff in the Ebola lab was likely to be exposed to that dangerous virus when an employee erroneously transported the wrong samples from high-level lab to a lower-level one. After that occurrence, inside investigations were led and different changes were prescribed.
Extra cams were installed to a few labs and certificates were made compulsory to move specimens from a few labs. The advisory panel is already trying to decrease lab safety risks and enhance the way safety procedures are executed.
The report has prescribed that all CDC labs should undergo an external audit and accreditation process. Other proposals incorporate subsidizing for lab safety projects and standard training, actualizing risk assessments, creating a system of dependable science and responsibility, compensating scientists who run safe labs and recruiting an executive to manage lab security.
Image Source: CNN
