LABORATORY HAZARDS WITH MYCOBACTERIUM TUBERCULOSIS - PREVENTION
Dr.T.V.Rao MD
A topic of interest for Diagnostic Microbiology graduates and postgraduates It was a opportunity to be moderator with Dr Chug MD at CARE HOSPITAL HYDERABAD and one living legend in Medical Microbiology, and I was enlightened to hear his lecture on incidence of Mycobacterium infections in the family members of the health care workers, apart from the infections to health care workers with hundreds of medical colleges in India few are lucky to work availability of Biosaftey , I never forget a open spat with a professor who assumes to be authority on tuberculosis with questionable authenticity who says that we need not much worry with tuberculosis otherwise science do not develop in our college, and I think this a tragic statement and hardly anybody supported my idea and the candidate working with the specimens was infected with tuberculosis, and ultimately no body to contest the happenings,
Mycobacterium tuberculosis is definite health hazard and laboratory personal at greater risk M. tuberculosis is endemic worldwide and a leading cause of disability and death; an estimated one-third of the world’s population is latently infected with TB. Isolates which are multi-drug resistant (MDR-TB), being resistant to at least isoniazid and rifampicin, and extensively drug-resistant (XDR-TB) are complicating the treatment regimes for this disease. A global movement, the Stop TB Partnership, strives to create a tuberculosis-free world by 2050. Many initial infections with M. tuberculosis go unnoticed; only 5-10% of people infected with M. tuberculosis become sick or infectious during their lifetime.
Laboratory Acquired Infections
Laboratory acquired infections with M. tuberculosis are the fourth most commonly reported. Infection can result from accidental inoculation, exposure to aerosols and infectious droplets, ingestion, and direct contact of mucous membranes with infectious materials. . Additionally, infectious bacteria may survive in heat-fixed smears or be aerosolized during the preparation of frozen sections and during the handling of liquid cultures.
Laboratory Practices
The appropriate bio safety level (BSL) practices and facilities will depend on the biological material that the laboratory is manipulating. Bio safety level 2 practices and facilities, at a minimum, must be used for activities involving primary cultures of sputum and preparing smears from clinical material. As a result of the low infectious dose (10 CFU), specimens from suspected or known cases of tuberculosis must be considered as potentially Bio safety level 3 practices and facilities must be used when preparing or manipulating cultures and with experimental animal studies involving M. tuberculosis, or any subspecies of the M. tuberculosis complex Infections BSL-3 builds upon the containment requirements of BSL-2. If you work in a lab that is designated BSL-3, the microbes there can be either indigenous or exotic, and they can cause serious or potentially lethal disease through respiratory transmission. Respiratory transmission is the inhalation route of exposure. One example of a microbe that is typically worked with in a BSL-3 laboratory is Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacteria that causes tuberculosis.
However it is expensive to buy the Biosaftey level 3 and many cannot afford however with few compromises we in India must start using the BSL 2 to save many in work area dealing with Mycobacterium with increasing MDR strain
Microbiology departments are truly neglected and we take matters casual way as there are no regulations to help the laboratory personal working in the diagnostic Microbiology
Resources and Post graduates to read more at
Mycobacterium tuberculosis Environmental health and Safety – Iowa University
CDC safety guidelines on Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Photo courtesy CDC 1 Biosaftey level 2
Photo 2 Dr T.V.Rao MD on Google
Photo 3 CDC resource Biosaftey level 3
Dr.T.V.Rao MD Freelance reporter on Microbiology
Dr.T.V.Rao MD
A topic of interest for Diagnostic Microbiology graduates and postgraduates It was a opportunity to be moderator with Dr Chug MD at CARE HOSPITAL HYDERABAD and one living legend in Medical Microbiology, and I was enlightened to hear his lecture on incidence of Mycobacterium infections in the family members of the health care workers, apart from the infections to health care workers with hundreds of medical colleges in India few are lucky to work availability of Biosaftey , I never forget a open spat with a professor who assumes to be authority on tuberculosis with questionable authenticity who says that we need not much worry with tuberculosis otherwise science do not develop in our college, and I think this a tragic statement and hardly anybody supported my idea and the candidate working with the specimens was infected with tuberculosis, and ultimately no body to contest the happenings,
Mycobacterium tuberculosis is definite health hazard and laboratory personal at greater risk M. tuberculosis is endemic worldwide and a leading cause of disability and death; an estimated one-third of the world’s population is latently infected with TB. Isolates which are multi-drug resistant (MDR-TB), being resistant to at least isoniazid and rifampicin, and extensively drug-resistant (XDR-TB) are complicating the treatment regimes for this disease. A global movement, the Stop TB Partnership, strives to create a tuberculosis-free world by 2050. Many initial infections with M. tuberculosis go unnoticed; only 5-10% of people infected with M. tuberculosis become sick or infectious during their lifetime.
Laboratory Acquired Infections
Laboratory acquired infections with M. tuberculosis are the fourth most commonly reported. Infection can result from accidental inoculation, exposure to aerosols and infectious droplets, ingestion, and direct contact of mucous membranes with infectious materials. . Additionally, infectious bacteria may survive in heat-fixed smears or be aerosolized during the preparation of frozen sections and during the handling of liquid cultures.
Laboratory Practices
The appropriate bio safety level (BSL) practices and facilities will depend on the biological material that the laboratory is manipulating. Bio safety level 2 practices and facilities, at a minimum, must be used for activities involving primary cultures of sputum and preparing smears from clinical material. As a result of the low infectious dose (10 CFU), specimens from suspected or known cases of tuberculosis must be considered as potentially Bio safety level 3 practices and facilities must be used when preparing or manipulating cultures and with experimental animal studies involving M. tuberculosis, or any subspecies of the M. tuberculosis complex Infections BSL-3 builds upon the containment requirements of BSL-2. If you work in a lab that is designated BSL-3, the microbes there can be either indigenous or exotic, and they can cause serious or potentially lethal disease through respiratory transmission. Respiratory transmission is the inhalation route of exposure. One example of a microbe that is typically worked with in a BSL-3 laboratory is Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacteria that causes tuberculosis.
However it is expensive to buy the Biosaftey level 3 and many cannot afford however with few compromises we in India must start using the BSL 2 to save many in work area dealing with Mycobacterium with increasing MDR strain
Microbiology departments are truly neglected and we take matters casual way as there are no regulations to help the laboratory personal working in the diagnostic Microbiology
Resources and Post graduates to read more at
Mycobacterium tuberculosis Environmental health and Safety – Iowa University
CDC safety guidelines on Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Photo courtesy CDC 1 Biosaftey level 2
Photo 2 Dr T.V.Rao MD on Google
Photo 3 CDC resource Biosaftey level 3
Dr.T.V.Rao MD Freelance reporter on Microbiology
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