In-house assembled protective devices in laboratory safety against SARS-nCoV-2 in clinical biochemistry laboratory of a COVID dedicated hospital
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Abstract
Health Care Workers (HCWs) of diagnostic laboratory handling COVID positive samples are at risk and need to take protective measures. Many protective materials were not available when the pandemic reached India forcing laboratory managers to take innovative measures to protect the laboratory staffs. We made face shields from OHP sheets and substitute of biosafety cabinets from cardboard boxes fitted with hypochlorite spraying devices. Here we present if these two in-house developed safety devices when incorporated in standard operating procedure (SOP) of laboratory safety were effective in clinical biochemistry laboratory of dedicated COVID hospitals. We assessed contamination of laboratory surfaces (n=6) and rate of SARS-nCov-2 positivity from their nasal and throat swab by RT-PCR among laboratory personnel (n=18) after 14 days of their use along with other routine safety devices like use of gloves, surgical masks, OT gowns etc. These HCWs were checked regularly for signs and symptoms of COVID-19 and none had any signs and symptoms during these 14days. The SARS-nCov-2 test report was negative for the staff members and no surface contamination was detected. We conclude that innovative and cost effective protective devices can be built in-house with locally available resources and are effective in preventing the spread of COVID 19 among the staff working in clinical biochemistry laboratories. Laboratory managers in resource scarce areas need to be innovative to face such sudden safety challenges like COVID-19 pandemic.
The highlight of the manuscript are
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Strengthening the Basics Approaches to protect the lab personnel in dedicated COVID hospital of Low-Resource Settings.
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Designed and developed in-house standard operating procedure (SOP) to fill the gap and evaluate the effect in dedicated COVID-19 hospitals.
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Innovative protective devices made from OHP sheets and cardboard boxes fitted with hypochlorite spraying devices as alternatives to biosafety cabinets on contamination of laboratory surfaces.
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Performance of the devices were clinically validated and it can be used as alternative in low resources settings.
Article activity feed
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SciScore for 10.1101/2020.08.24.20155713: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement not detected. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Table 2: Resources
No key resources detected.
Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).
Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:Another limitation is that most of the COVID-19 cases are asymptomatic and hence, clinical monitoring by self-reporting of symptoms is bound to miss the diagnosis in most of the cases. Even diagnosis by RT-PCR is only 70-80% …
SciScore for 10.1101/2020.08.24.20155713: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement not detected. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Table 2: Resources
No key resources detected.
Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).
Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:Another limitation is that most of the COVID-19 cases are asymptomatic and hence, clinical monitoring by self-reporting of symptoms is bound to miss the diagnosis in most of the cases. Even diagnosis by RT-PCR is only 70-80% sensitive 22. Even the lab surfaces and equipment did not show the presence of the virus by RT-PCR testing of the swab taken from the working surfaces and equipment. So it proves that transmission through surface contamination did not occur. The Substitution of a biosafety cabinet with an innovative cardboard box might have acted as a barrier for spread of aerosol although it was not having a negative pressure. However, regular decontamination of the working surfaces with hypochlorite and instruments with 70% ethanol might be a major contributor of prevention of surface contamination. Chance of survival of the virus inside the cardboard box was prevented by spray of hypochlorite solution after each session of decapping and pipetting. This spraying device also helped us use the device for 1-2days. We conclude that in resource scarce health set up where standard CDC or WHO recommended biosafety measures cannot be totally followed, such simple, low cost and innovative devices made in-house or locally from locally available materials can be effectively used in such sudden outbreak of contagious viral infections. With understanding of the basic principle of barrier method, innovations are possible and are key to success in such critical periods.
Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.
Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.
Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.
Results from rtransparent:- Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- No protocol registration statement was detected.
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