PESHAWAR: The Khyber Medical University Public Health Reference Laboratory (KMU-PHRL), Peshawar organized a three-day hands-on training on Bio-Risk Management (BRM).

The training was conducted in collaboration with WHO and NIH, Islamabad, according to a statement issued here on Monday. The objectives of the training included introduction to Laboratory Biosafety Manual (LBM4) and capacity building of the personnel working with infectious pathogens including COVID-19 at provincial and divisional laboratories in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Overall, representatives from 14 different public and private sector laboratories of KP participated in this training. Lectures and hands-on sessions were facilitated by Dr Hafsah Muhammad, Dr. Yasar Yousafzai from KMU, and Dr Uzma Amir, Sajid Ali from WHO and Ms Shazia Adeel, Ms Zurva Ashraf from NIH, Islamabad.

The training covered all the major aspects of on-ground Biological Risk assessment and mitigation strategies. Home assignments and virtual follow-up sessions will be continuing till end of February to facilitate the participants in performing risk assessment at their own institutes. It is worth mentioning that KMU has been focusing on the Biosafety and BRM since early 2017 and since then, have achieved several milestones in the development of KMU Biosafety Programme. BRM is an essential component of laboratory strengthening in line with the IHR 2005.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021