Decontamination Validation of the BSL-4 Chemical Disinfectant Deluge Shower System.

Introduction: Positive pressure breathing-air-fed protective suits are used in biosafety level 4 (BSL-4) containment laboratories as personal protective equipment to protect workers from high-consequence pathogens. However, even with the use of primary containment devices, the exterior surfaces of these suits could potentially become contaminated with those pathogens and result in their inadvertent removal from containment. To address the risk of such pathogens escaping from containment via contaminated protective suits, these suits are decontaminated in a disinfectant chemical shower situated in an anteroom prior to exiting the BSL-4 laboratory.

Validation of Marburg Virus Inactivation by AVL Buffer.

The removal of inactivated Marburg virus (MARV) material from a biosafety level 4 (BSL-4) setting is a critical first step to enable downstream analyses at lower containment levels. The following method presents a highly sensitive approach for efficacy testing of virus inactivation without the loss of a low titer virus that may otherwise be masked by cytotoxic effects of the cells. This protocol outlines the procedure used to validate the inactivation of MARV samples for viral RNA extraction in cell culture, demonstrating accurate contact time needed for exposure, minimal loss of virus titers that may be present in minute quantities, and the removal of toxic elements to cells.

Effectiveness of pasteurization for the inactivation of H5N1 influenza virus in raw whole milk.

Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) clade 2.3.4.

Inactivation Validation of Ebola, Marburg, and Lassa Viruses in AVL and Ethanol-Treated Viral Cultures.

High-consequence pathogens such as the Ebola, Marburg, and Lassa viruses are handled in maximum-containment biosafety level 4 (BSL-4) laboratories. Genetic material is often isolated from such viruses and subsequently removed from BSL-4 laboratories for a multitude of downstream analyses using readily accessible technologies and equipment available at lower-biosafety level laboratories. However, it is essential to ensure that these materials are free of viable viruses before removal from BSL-4 laboratories to guarantee sample safety.

Spirituality As A Determinant Of Health: Emerging Policies, Practices, And Systems.

Reimagining public health's future should include explicitly considering spirituality as a social determinant of health that is linked to human goods and is deeply valued by people and their communities. Spirituality includes a sense of ultimate meaning, purpose, transcendence, and connectedness. With that end in mind, we assessed how recommendations recently issued by an expert panel for integrating spiritual factors into public health and medicine are being adopted in current practice in the United States.