Biosafety is a popular concept that goes hand-in-hand with biosecurity. There are many valuable professionals who work in this domain, Martin Sanders being one of them. Throughout his career, he involved in biosafety and biosecurity issues both in the United States of America and abroad. Biosafety majorly involves the implementation of particular procedures and practices, ideal occupational health programs, training and safety equipment, as well as healthcare infrastructure. All of these factors are important to make sure that an organization can work with potentially infectious microorganisms, as well as other biological hazards.
The varying components of biosafety tend to be enforced for protecting the ones working with biological materials from any kind of harm. It also helps in preventing environment, public and wildlife from getting exposed to potentially harmful and contagious biological agents. Biosafety frameworks are generally implemented in varying lab settings. This includes diagnostic laboratories, teaching and academic laboratories, analytical and environmental research, as well biological research and production laboratories. Biosafety measures are vital for laboratories meant for veterinary and human clinical testing. These measures are designed to eradicate or considerably reduce the risk of any kind of biological contamination, at least. For the purpose of addressing these hazards, the domain of biosafety features few important concepts. The very first one being associated to biological hazards, and tends to focus on controlling any kind of potential risk that is posed by the exposure to biological agents that might cause diseases. The second concept would be biocontainment and it relates to the varying measures that are undertaken to potentially prevent the spread of a certain infectious disease. Bioprotection is the third concept, and it deals with the measures that are implemented for the purpose of reducing the risk of loss, theft, misuse or even international release of dangerous pathogens. Public Health Professionals like Martin Sanders are often involved in managing and monitoring biosafety in diverse environments.
Covid-19 pandemic impacted almost every part of the globe. This disease was caused due to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Aspects of biosecurity and biosafety became immensely important in the battle against the virus, as both of these practices are focused on preventing the environment from exposure and preventing risks to health due to explore to biological agents that might cause diseases.
The laboratories that investigated the SARS-CoV-2 for the purpose of developing preventive measures, treatments and even vaccines, needed proper biosafety measures. Ideally biosafety BSL-3 or containment level 3 laboratories were used for this purpose. This level of containment was needed for the preclinical development of vaccines. Across the world, diverse types of research institutions responsible for developing vaccines essentially adhered to the BSL-3 protocols. The level of development and research that went into combating the spread of Covid-19 played a great role in highlighting the need of BSL-3 facilities when it came to monitoring and preventing the spread of any type of contagious disease.