The Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) in collaboration with Cooperación Española, FORMIT, Ospedale Luigi Socco, and ASST Fatebenefratelli Sacco, hosted the Design Experts Team (DET) Training Course on Design, Construction, and Management of General Containment Laboratories from February 6-10 at the Training Center Lecture Rooms of RITM.

The five-day training course was funded by the European Union (EU) and the Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) Centers of Excellence. RITM Veterinary Research Department Head, Dr. Fedelino F. Malbas, Jr. led the training and served as the CBRN National Coordinator.

According to Dr. Malbas, RITM only hosted the first part of the training which aimed at general containment laboratories (i.e. laboratories found in national, regional, provincial hospitals and clinics).

The training course tackled introduction to biosafety and biosecurity, principles of laboratory design and containment, facility conception, processes, and elements, laboratory biosafety equipment, addressing encountered problems, and introduction to high containment laboratories.

EU Engineer Mark Wheatley, National University of Singapore Dr. Sabai Pityu, and Health Education Research Associates (HERA) Laboratory Planners Architect Mitsy Canto-Jacobs facilitated the course discussions. Thirty four participants from eight ASEAN member countries which include Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam attended the training.

The second part of the DET Training was held at the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology (NIHE) at Hanoi, Vietnam. Insights from the DET Trainings Part I and Part II will be discussed and consolidated to refine a training material and booklet which will be released and distributed during the workshop at Brunei Darussalam by the end of 2017.

*Fundación Internacional y para Iberoamérica de Administración y Políticas Públicas

by Allenor Enciso