12. Accidents to Actions:
Lessons from Laboratory Acquired Infections

A distance learning opportunity
September 10 and 17, 2026
12:00 – 2:00 PM (CDT)

Registration for the live webinar must be completed 1 business day prior to the start of the training.
Registrations received after will receive access to the recording only.

Instructor:

Karen B. Byers, MS, RBP/CBSP (ABSA Emeritus), Retired—Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA

Overview

This course describes the resources currently available to provide data on 3,962 Laboratory-acquired infections (LAIs) published between 1979 and 2025 that occurred in clinical, teaching, veterinary laboratories, field studies, and industrial vaccine production. Case studies will highlight some of the challenges for exposure prevention in each setting to show how LAI data can support your biosafety program.

We will look at the annual reports of two centralized national systems committed to transparent and consistent reporting on exposures, seroconversions, and laboratory-acquired infections (LAIs) according to their regulatory framework.

• S. Federal Select Agent Program (2015-2024)
• Canadian LINC system (2016-2024)

The two programs differ in scope whereas the US system reports only on Select Agents and the Canadian system reports on all Risk Group 2-4 pathogens. However, both programs provide important lessons on the successful administration of a biosafety program, including the importance of follow up after every exposure incident to prevent re-occurrence.

PubMed and Google Scholar yield international data on LAIs – literature surveys and specific studies of LAIs due to bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites in various settings. This includes the challenges of working with blood or urine samples that may contain a Risk Group 3 pathogen in a clinical laboratory, and the “lessons learned” from research studies with E.coli H7:0157, LCMV, Vaccinia, and Dengue. Zoonotic pathogens are also an important source of LAIs. For example, there have been 3 recent Macathine Herpes virus LAIs (“monkey B” virus in press reports). The group will discuss how to respond to a zoonotic outbreak scenario in an animal facility that results in staff hospitalizations and then look at how a program developed the appropriate interdepartmental response for that actual, unexpected event.

Audience Level:

All levels

Suggested Background:

None

Who Should Attend:

All Biosafety and Biosecurity professionals in government, industry, academic and other institutions/organizations; anyone who regularly communicates about biosafety with public health or non-biosafety professionals

This course has been approved for 0.5 CM points toward RBP/CBSP recertification. *ABSA International is approved as a provider of continuing education programs in clinical laboratory sciences by the ASCLS P.A.C.E.^® Program. This course is approved for 4.5 P.A.C.E.^® contact hours. Course access links are unique and for individual use only. Sharing is prohibited. Duplicate logins or unregistered attendees will be removed from the webinar without a refund.