Lab Matters Summer 2018 | Page 46

APHL 2018 Annual Meeting Poster Abstracts

Biosafety directly contacted partners via calls or site visits. PHLs cited staffing turnover and shortages as major challenges to sustaining improvements.

Presenter: Christina Chung, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, Email: vym4 @ cdc. gov

Evaluating the Flocked Swab as a Tool to Sample and Recover Healthcare Pathogens from Nitrile Gloves

( complete abstract in Infectious Disease, p. 65)

Enterprise-level Risk Assessment in the Public Health Laboratory: A Case Study from a Prospective Polio- Essential Facility

R. Stinnett 1, J. Anstadt 1, C. Burns 1, W. Nix 1, E. Rhoden 1, W. Weldon 1, L. Stanford 2, S. Bernstein 2, H. Vu 1, M. Oberste 1, L. Haynes 1; 1 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, 2 Booz Allen Hamilton / Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA

Background: We present an interdisciplinary team-based approach for risk assessment in a public health laboratory setting. We describe, as a case study, an exercise conducted at the Polio and Picornavirus Laboratory Branch( PPLB) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention( CDC), in preparation for a request for certification as a Polio-Essential Facility. The objectives of this exercise were to( 1) identify risks to staff safety,( 2) identify risks to biosecurity and( 3) inform strategic risk management planning, to minimize poliovirus facility-associated risk after eradication of wild polioviruses.

Methods: We formed a task force composed of laboratory scientists, a quality specialist, a safety specialist and leadership to review laboratory procedures and applied process analysis to classify them into a network of core activities. We developed a custom risk assessment tool to identify hazards to biosafety, biosecurity and quality and reached a consensus about each hazard’ s relative likelihood and consequences by core activity.

Results: Our enterprise-level risk assessment identified no high-risk hazards, formally documenting the strengths of the existing PPLB biorisk management system. However, through this process we identified additional opportunities to further mitigate moderate- and low-risk hazards. This risk assessment informed the optimization of several PPLB workflows and facilitated the strategic engagement of partners in CDC occupational health, physical security and facilities services.

Conclusions: Engaging scientists, safety specialists and quality specialists simultaneously not only promoted comprehensive evaluation of hazards, but effectively coupled hazard identification with strategic planning for risk mitigation. Furthermore, leadership engagement facilitated the implementation of risk management plans, particularly those that required engagement of key players outside the laboratory. We propose that this model is broadly applicable for risk assessment in any public health laboratory.

Presenter: Rita Stinnett, MHS, PhD, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, Phone: 404.718.6779, Email: nrk2 @ cdc. gov

Creating a Knowledge Sharing Hub for Biosecurity Using an Online Collaborative Tool

A. Tseng 1, L. Musralina 2, E. Rzayev 3, E. Marshall 4, M. Adams 4, K. Yeh 5; 1 McGill University, Montreal, PQ, Canada, 2 Institute of General Genetics and Cytology, Amaty, Kazakhstan, 3 Republican Veterinary Laboratory of Azerbaijan, 4 Washington State University, Pullman, WA, 5 MRIGlobal, Gaithersburg, MD

An array of biosecurity threats both known and unknown exists today. With technological advances such as the de novo synthesis of horsepox virus, biosecurity professionals need to be well informed, trained and equipped to recognize these risks. Although there is an abundance of technical references available, there is no single roadmap to follow or a central location for individuals to access them and otherwise promote an interactive engagement. Our team proposed to develop a novel engagement tool using web-based software for networking across sectors and regions. This work was part of a Global Health Security( GHSA)-related proposal competition, which our submission was awarded first place. Using online collaboration tools can be used to reinforce existing biosecurity best practices, standards and policies that are important for achieving GHSA and Joint External Evaluations( JEE) biosecurity objectives. Related information, research and learning are also used to inform national policy development. In order to effectively implement the GHSA, one must recognize that there are clear biosecurity gaps in both the GHSA and JEE. Our goal is to create a low-cost repeatable model for next generation biosecurity professionals to engage with experts in the field by means of a question and answer forum by creating an online portal of biosecurity resources and tools to assist users in achieving the biosecurity targets within the GHSA and JEE. By collaborating with partners, experts and using software and apps, this model serves as a useful forum to discuss biosecurity and also related issues among working groups and peer institutes such as state and local public health laboratories.

Presenter: Lyazzat Musralina, Institute of General Genetics and Cytology, Almaty, Kazakhstan, Email: musralinal @ gmail. com

Laboratory Biosafety and Biosecurity Partners Forum, Looking into the Future

M. Pentella 1, C. Mangal 2, R. Salerno 3, M. Marsico 2; 1 University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, 2 Association of Public Health Laboratories, Silver Spring, MD, 3 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA

In May 2015, APHL was awarded a three year, $ 2.2 million Cooperative Agreement for Domestic Laboratory Biosafety for Ebola and Other Highly Infectious Diseases, by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention( CDC), with one of the many objectives being to facilitate state, local and territorial public health laboratories( PHLs) with outreach efforts to their clinical laboratory partners, with the goal of enhancing biosafety and biosecurity within these facilities. APHL’ s member PHLs reach out to clinical laboratories via a number of activities such as training courses, information sharing during emergencies, assistance with risk assessments and routine communications. APHL engages diverse stakeholders, including non-governmental organizations and federal agencies that do everything from laboratory testing to accreditation. In 2016, APHL convened the Laboratory Biosafety and Biosecurity Partners Forum to facilitate information exchange among various federal partners and other stakeholders engaged in evaluating and