GENERAL AWARENESS AND ATTITUDE REGARDING BIO-SAFETY MEASURES AMONG LABORATORY WORKERS IN CLINICAL LABORATORIES OF KARACHI

ABSTRACT

Aims: The aim of this study was to find out the level of awareness and biosafety measures taken by laboratory workers during their routine work and to determine the status of bio-safety measures in clinical laboratories.

Setting: Public and private sector hospital based laboratory workers were recruited from all 18 towns of Karachi. 

Subject and Methods: Karachi comprises of 18 towns from each town one public (18) and one private (18) hospitals was randomly selected after taking consent from the hospital administration. Sample size of 253 was calculated at 95% confidence level of the available workers (technician, supervisor, laboratory incharge, Asst. technician, Trainee). A total of 07 workers in these disciplines of health were randomly interviewed from each public and private sector hospital after taking informed consent from them also. Questionnaire comprising of closed ended questions was filled by researcher.

Results: A total of 253 laboratory workers from public and private hospital laboratories were recruited, comprising of 200 males and 53 females. About 62% technicians had a working experience of more than 5 years and 46.2% laboratory workers did not use any kind of personal protective equipment, 39.5% regularly recapped needles after use while 10.7% occasionally recapped needles. About 36% respondents discarded used syringes without cutting. Mouth pipetting was done by 38% technicians. Over 50% workers (58.5%) don’t know that incinerator is used for discarding hospital waste and 28.1% confirmed that their hospital did not have one and they throw the waste in municipal dustbin.  Standard operating procedures were not available to 74% laboratory technicians and neither records for accidental exposure or spill were not maintained by 83.4% laboratories. Majority (85%) of the respondent did not have any formal training on bio-safety and bio-security.

Conclusion: There was lack of awareness regarding Standard Operating Procedures for the laboratories; indicating an urgent need for organizing basic training programs for these workers along with formulation of institutional bio-safety committees