As per the statement of the safety counselors of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the agency is on the verge of losing its credibility.
CDC has appointed a panel of safety experts for evaluating its laboratories and has found that there was inadequate training and lack of leadership commitment in regards to safety. That is not the only issue in hand but a substantial proportion of the staff are afraid of reporting accidents.
In 2014, CDC has undergone lab mishaps which involved a few of the most pathogens which compelled this Atlanta-based organization to assign an external panel of 11 experts in the field of biosafety, laboratory science and conduct research as consultants.
In June 2014, dozens of staffs at the center’s bioterrorism lab working with the deadly “anthrax” virus were at risk due to failing in correctly following the procedure of sterilization techniques.
The following month, in May, avian influenza samples were mistakenly mixed with the deadly H5N1 influenza virus before being dispatched to a USDA lab.
The same year in December, staffs at the Ebola were exposed to the virus because a technician transported the wrong specimen from high-level lab to a lower-level one by mistake.
The panel wrote, “We are very concerned that the CDC is on the way to losing credibility. The CDC must not see itself as ‘special’. The internal controls and rules that the rest of the world works under also apply to CDC.”
The CDC has very silently posted this report on their website this week. Nonetheless, the report was dated from Jan 13th, 6 months later to CDC Director Tom Frieden testifying before Congress about taking major steps in addressing the safety issues of the laboratory.
CDC has also stated that even though the findings of the external team were presented in January, the work group started its review of CDC labs in August and conducted the massive evaluation at CDC in August and September. The evaluation report had almost 20 recommendations for improvements.
The CDC confirmed that they are already working on enhancing its biosafety training, clarifying policies and standardizing protocols and ensuring that these are all pursued. They also added that they are recruiting a new associate director for the Laboratory Science and Safety who directly report to the director of the agency. The CDC has also requested for an increased budget request of $20 million for improving the laboratory safety and capacity.