March 01, 2021

HSP, Malaysian Biosafety & Biosecurity Association Host Biorisk Management Webinar Series For COVID-19 Testing Laboratories

Recently, HSP and the Malaysian Biosafety & Biosecurity Association (MBBA), hosted a biorisk management webinar series over a five-week period at the end of 2020, for 30 staff members from COVID-19 testing laboratories across Malaysia.

Though the international community has heralded Malaysia’s COVID response, a third wave of infections in October 2020 created the need for significantly more COVID-19 diagnostic testing. To fulfill this need, HSP and MBBA designed this webinar to provide laboratory staff with continuing education to prevent laboratory acquired infections, which can easily spread to the community.

Topics discussed during the training included best practices for risk assessment, sample collection and transport, proper use of personal protective equipment (PPE), working safely in a biological safety cabinet, and waste management. The webinar participants said they appreciated the continuing education course and noted it served as a good refresher for them on key biosecurity and biosafety practices. It also answered many of their outstanding questions about proper handling of potential COVID-19 samples.