New Guidelines Aim to Raise Standards for Laboratory-Acquired Infections in Clinical Pathology Laboratories
Medical laboratory directors and pathologists are likely to find their lab’s safety standards increasingly under the spotlight
Clinical laboratories and pathology groups should be aware of new safety guidelines that address the risk of laboratory-acquired infections (LAI). A panel of experts convened by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently released safety guidelines for medical laboratory workers.
The guidelines are intended to improve safety specifically in diagnostic laboratories that handle specimens from humans and animals. Statistics indicate the clinical laboratory workers have infection rates for certain diseases that can be up to 20 times greater than that of the general population! It is believed current data understate the true rate of laboratory-acquired infections within the nation’s medical laboratories and pathology groups. (more…)
