Biosafety intervention and follow up assessment in laboratory workers of Karachi, Pakistan

ABSTRACT

Regular trainings and capacity building are required for all health care workers to ensure that they follow the laid down standard operating procedures and thus avoid any mishap. Delays in such trainings and improper supervision results in their reverting back to their old habits. Post intervention assessment of laboratory workers of public and private sector hospitals of Karachi on adherence to biosafety practices. Quantitative-qualitative cross-sectional survey done from August-November, 2012 using simple random sampling. Study population comprised of 253 laboratory workers of public and private sector hospital laboratories of Karachi. An initial KAP survey on biosafety practices in the laboratories and their workers followed by training and a post intervention evaluation was done in 2008. Four years later these workers were re-evaluated using an anonymous closed ended questionnaire to assess how many are following the training and the standard guidelines. Data was entered and analyzed using SPSS 13.0. Mean and percentages were calculated for quantitative variables and x[2] - test was applied for significance. A total of 253 participants [168 males and 85 females] returned the filled questionnaire Almost all [98.8%] laboratory workers had correct concept on use of personal protective equipment, 85% were neither practicing mouth pipetting for chemical and biological samples, nor using laboratories for eating and drinking purposes while importance of SOP/BOP and laboratory accident record maintenance was acknowledged by over 95%. Knowledge about discarding the used syringe was present in only 68%. A comparison between public and private sector laboratory workers revealed that 37% public sector workers were still discarding syringes in the dustbin as opposed to 3% from private sector. Educational interventions performed almost 4 years ago were still followed by laboratory workers indicating the importance of at least one training every 2-3 years to sensitize them on biosafety