Uganda Virus Research Institute(UVRI) with support from the Government of Uganda received funding to conduct COVID-19 Trials under the NAV-COVID-19 study. The vioson of Uganda is that by 2030, Uganda will join other countries in Africa to lead vaccine trials research that has a major contribution to end the covid-19 pandemic and make significant contributions to world health. The strategy is to significantly and rapidly engage and support variousresearch teams to conduct this research work on vaccines. It was against that background that the bio-safety and bio-security committe was considered for the training.
The participants included project heads, lab-technologists and members of the bio-safety and bio-securitycommitte at UVRI with laboratory safety skills with reference to the SOPs including the use of PPE when handling COVID-19 and other pathogens in the laboratory.
The participants were taken through the use of safety cabinets when conducting the COVID-19 tests, waste management and handling and general engineering controls during the training. The other aspects were health and safety management that highlighted the accident formula that indicates exposure and hazard. The participants were informed that to minimise the chances of having an accident, you need to control the hazard. The trainers empasized the role of administrative controls in protecting persons from accidents in a laboratory. The participants went ahead to differentiate a threat from a hazard all under measurement of risk.
The other topics that were discussed included; bio-safety and bio security effectiveness, hazard identification and control strategies, accident prevention and investigation, health and bio-safety management systems reviews/audits, ergonomics, covid-19 guidance for lab workplace safety, engineering controls, laboratory negative pressure, safety cabinets and covid-19 basic research PPE and waste management.
This was a two day training that run from 3-4th March, 2021 at the Uganda Virus Research Institute.