OpiniãoThe recommendations in this chapter are the minimum requirements needed to limit or reduce risks of infection in laboratories carrying out specific procedures that are considered to have a moderate risk of spreading TB. Additional measures may be deemed necessary following a site-specific risk assessment.
Moderate-risk laboratories that follow the minimum biosafety requirements described in this chapter can safely perform certain procedures that entail a moderate risk of specimen aerosolization with a relatively low concentration of infectious particles. Moderate-risk laboratories can:
- process specimens for inoculation on primary solid-culture media;
- perform direct DST (for example, direct line-probe assays, Microscopic observation drug susceptibility [MODS], Nitrate reductase assay [NRA] on processed sputum).