WHO updates laboratory biosecurity guidance

SWITZERLAND— The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued updated recommendations for national authorities and biomedical laboratories to improve biological risk management.

These guidelines are critical in providing laboratories with vital components of health systems that are required for patient diagnosis, fast clinical care, disease surveillance, pathogen characterization, and therapy and vaccine research and development.

The amended guidance emphasizes the need of well-constructed and equipped facilities, well-trained people, evidence-based risk mitigation methods, open reporting, and tiered oversight procedures.

These components protect both the workers and the community from pathogenic germs and poisons.

Notably, the latest improvements to the advice include stronger cybersecurity protections and standards for managing personal information such as medical records.

Furthermore, the guideline covers the hazards associated with developing technologies such as genetic alteration, pathogen manipulation, and artificial intelligence.

It also gives suggestions on how to keep laboratories safe and secure during emergencies like wars, civil upheaval, and natural catastrophes.

WHO’s revised laboratory biosecurity guidance is especially important for countries without strong regulatory frameworks.

It emphasizes the importance of robust institutional control, calling for the creation of Institutional Biosafety Committees with national monitoring.

The advice provides detailed best practices and recommendations, pushing Member States to adopt a risk-based approach as specified in the World Health Assembly’s resolution on ‘Strengthening laboratory biological risk management’.

The guidance, developed in conjunction with a wide range of stakeholders, including WHO collaborating centres and technical advisory bodies, most notably the WHO Technical Advisory Group on Biosafety (TAG-B), intends to reduce the hazards associated with high-risk infections and biomedical research.

 It promotes active participation and commitment from institutions and national authorities to protect communities from the unintentional or intentional misuse and release of biological materials, while also facilitating legitimate biomedical research operations.

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