Knowledge and practice of biosafety precautions in a developing tertiary care institute of North India.

Sir,

Health-care personnel are exposed to a variety of occupational health hazards while handling biological material and contaminated equipment. The basic concept of biosafety is to promote safe laboratory practices and procedures as well as cautious use of containment equipment and facilities by laboratory workers for their protection. We conducted a study after obtaining ethical clearance to assess the level of knowledge and practices regarding biosafety as well as for biomedical waste disposal among the health-care personnel of developing a tertiary health-care institute of North India.

This was a questionnaire-based study which included 44 medical faculty members, 24 resident doctors, and 56 nurses. There were twenty multiple choice questions on knowledge and ten questions on practice of biosafety measures. The structured questionnaire was based on the World Health Organization Laboratory biosafety manual and Centers for Disease Control: Perspectives in Disease Prevention and Health Promotion Update,[12] and validation was conducted by a pretesting on ten members who were representatives of each group of the study population. The individual scores were calculated as percentage of correct responses.

The knowledge score of participants is summarized in Table 1 and practice scores are summarized in Table 2. The consultant doctors had highest mean knowledge score of 75.1. Their mean practice score was 64.3. The resident doctors had a lower mean knowledge score of 59.8, but highest practice score (mean score 70.8). Both knowledge (mean score 36.8) and practice score (mean score 52.3) were lowest for the nurses.

Table 1

Frequency of correct responses on knowledge-based questions

Table 2

Frequency of positive responses on practice-based questions

Several studies have been conducted in the past which have observed gross deficiencies in the knowledge, attitude, and practice of health-care workers regarding biosafety and proper waste disposal.[34] Results of this study also confirmed a lack of awareness regarding biosafety practices among the health-care personnel at our institute, especially the nursing staff.

In developing countries like India, issues pertaining to occupational biohazards are still not given adequate attention by both employers and employees. This study has important biosafety implications, and results helped us in framing awareness and educational material for subsequent training programs through targeted CMEs and lectures. We emphasized the importance of vaccination and thereafter all the staff got vaccinated for hepatitis B.

Subsequently, an institutional biosafety committee was also formed which aimed to control and record nosocomial infection as well as accidents, develop relevant SOPs, encourage the use of protective equipment by health-care personnel and ensure proper specimen collection, processing and infective waste disposal as per the guidelines.

It is recommended that biosafety should be a part of the overall quality assurance program in every hospital.

Financial support and sponsorship

Nil.

Conflicts of interest

There are no conflicts of interest.