Thanks to an African Society of Laboratory Medicine (ASLM) project in collaboration with Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Laboratory Direction from Burkina Faso (DGPML),
Arnaud Orelle and Antoine Pierson performed a biosafety assessment of 10 laboratories (hospitals, research centers, reference laboratories, NPHL) in Burkina Faso using a specific bilingual English/French assessment tool developed for this purpose (organization, GLP, disinfection, biosecurity, pathogens management, chemical and electrical risks, etc.)
The assessment will be complemented by a one week Biosaftey and risk assessment training in Ouagadougou the following week, to review in details all identified gaps, and for the stakholders to develop a plan of action of implementation.
Later, a national biosafety guideline for laboratories will be developed jointly by Laboratory Direction and IQLS, on the basis of assessment and training conducted.
This project is part of the US-CDC Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) initiative, aiming at helping countries and individuals improve laboratory networks, laboratory/epidemiology collaboration and contribute to updated IHR (2005) (IHR) implementation.