CARPHA trains Guyana teams in safe transport of infectious substances

Jun 05, 2024 News

In this dated May 27, 2024, CARPHA instructors Carlos Rampersad, and Danielle Gordon-John (seated) have a photo opportunity with workshop participants from Ministry of Health, Guyana. The training programme, Shipping of Infectious Substances and Laboratory Biosafety Practices, ran from May 20 to 27, 2024. [Image courtesy CARPHA]

Kaieteur News – Guyana now has cadre of persons with essential knowledge and practical skills on how to safely prepare and ship infectious materials, and to increase the compliance of CMS with World Health Organization International Health Regulations (WHO IHR).

This was made possible by training recently facilitated by CARPHA IATA certified trainers.

According to a statement issued by CARPHA, the training programme ran from May 20 to 27, 2024, with some 16 participants from the Ministry of Health Guyana, successfully completed the Shipping of Infectious Substances and Laboratory Bio-safety Practices training programme.

The training workshop was held at Guyana’s National Public Health Laboratory and was made possible through funding from the Republic of Korea-CARICOM Cooperation Fund. Participants engaged in an intensive curriculum that combined theoretical and practical instruction covering a range of topics including waste disposal; materials management and chemical safety; bio-safety audits and monitoring; shipping of infectious substances/practical assessment packaging; handling and emergency response.

“The Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) underscores the importance of maintaining International Air Transport Association (IATA) certification and the Agency has been working since 2016 with Member States on improving national capacities for bio-safety and bio-security, which are key components for national and regional health security,” stated Dr. Joy St. John Executive Director at CARPHA. “To date, more than 300 laboratory personnel from CARPHA Member States (CMS) have been trained in how to safely prepare shipments of infectious substances.”

CARPHA, through its Medical Microbiology Laboratory has been working within the Caribbean Region to promote and support the achievement of regional health security through compliance with the WHO IHR and increased laboratory capacity to respond to public health threats and/or public health emergencies.

Dr. Lisa Indar, Director of Surveillance, Disease Prevention and Control at CARPHA, underscored the importance of such training. “Our region continues to face both old and new public health challenges,” Dr. Indar observes. “These include non-communicable diseases, natural disasters, and emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases.” “As such, it is important that we have the capacity to respond at the national and regional levels to safely and quickly respond to these situations. Having teams of trained and certified shippers in the public health systems allows us to do just that,” she stated. In continuation of this programme, CARPHA will conduct a series of Training Workshops in Member States during the coming months.

The Training series is supported through the project “Strengthening Health Systems in CARICOM to Address Infectious Diseases”, which is funded by the Republic of Korea through the Republic of Korea-CARICOM Cooperation Fund. The project supports regional and national level workshops in the Shipping of Infectious Substances, as well as the enhancement of other biosafety and biosecurity measures in CARPHA Member States. — Georgetown, Guyana (CARPHA)

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CARPHA, CARPHA instructors Carlos Rampersad, Danielle Gordon-John, infectious substances, safe transport, World Health Organization International Health Regulations

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