This collection is Volume II of the Research Topic
Biorisk Management, Laboratory Acquired Infections and Clinical Containment. Volume I of the series showcased new frontiers in biosafety, biosecurity, gene-editing, international instruments available in the field of biosafety, and the impact of virtual training and customized tools, including modified hand washing protocol for resource-limited settings. The findings from Volume I documented that implementation and application of biosafety and PPE protocols were effective measures that assured infection control by reducing the risk of cross-infection, for example between health professionals and patients.
After the COVID-19 pandemic, the spread of dangerous pathogens and outbreak of infectious diseases represents a serious global health security threat highlighting that biorisk management remains an important public health matter to continue to address. The previous findings highlighted that as financial, cultural, and managerial hurdles made compliance with biosafety and biosecurity measures difficult in resource-limited countries, particularly in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, more emphasis must be placed on increasing awareness of biorisk management for continuous and effective improvement.
In addition, the previous collection recognized barriers to the successful implementation of biosecurity measures in the context not only for humans but for livestock as well. In poultry and poultry-related products that are at high risk of microbial infections and communicable diseases, biosecurity measures are widely advocated to reduce morbidity and mortality. Therefore, it is of paramount importance to increase compliance with biosecurity practices both nationally and internationally to protect and defend against biological threats.
Considering these points, and based on the previous collection, this Volume II Research Topic aims to add to the body of research in the domain of biorisk management to assess laboratory acquired infections and improve public health – a major area of concern that is still under-reported and neglected within this domain. Areas to be covered in this Research Topic may include, but are not limited to:
• Development of biocontainment tools, equipment, materials, methods, protocols, policy, etc;
• Biorisk Assessment, mitigation, evaluation, and communication;
• Facility Design: Design, construction, and commissioning of laboratories;
• Decontamination of facilities, equipment, and materials;
• Biorepository Management: for infectious materials and pathogens;
• Biosafety, biosecurity, and BRM framework in public health;
• Applied biosafety, biosecurity, infection control, and clinical containment;
• Laboratory acquired infections and Public Health;
• Incident and LAIs reporting and command system;
• PPEs development, utilities, applications, and safe practices;
• Biosafety and biosecurity awareness;
• Formulation of Biorisk Management framework in a health-care setting;
• Training, education, and or other interventions to improve biosafety/biosecurity measures;
• Biorisk Assessment concerning the advancement in new technologies, including synthetic biology, gene-editing, gene-drive, CRISPR etc.
