Swine Flu, Guidelines for Laboratory Workers, BSC Deliveries

SWINE FLU OUTBREAK
This weekend the media has been all over with breaking news on the swine flu outbreak, which has killed up to 81 people in Mexico and now spread to the US, Canada and New Zealand.

HOW SERIOUS IS IT?
The Geneva-based WHO has declared the flu a "public health emergency of international concern." It poses the biggest risk of a large-scale pandemic since avian flu re-emerged in 2003, killing 257 out of 421 infected in 15 countries.

Background information:
http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/en/index.html

HANDLING SWINE FLU SAMPLES IN LABORATORIES
The US CDC recommends that swine influenza be handled in a Biosafety Level (BSL) 2 laboratory with BSL3 practices (enhanced BSL2 conditions). Specific guidelines: http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/guidelines_labworkers.htm.

US CDC guidelines for work at BSL2: http://www.cdc.gov/OD/ohs/symp5/jyrtext.htm.

"Biosafety Level 2
The facility, the containment devices, the administrative controls, and the practices and procedures that constitute BSL-2 are designed to maximize safe working conditions for laboratorians working with agents of moderate risk to personnel and the environment. Any work that may produce splatters or aerosols of infectious materials should be done inside a biological safety cabinet (BSC) or other containment device."

HOW ESCO IS RESPONDING
As a world leader in biological safety cabinets (BSCs), Esco is ramping up production of BSCs in response to anticipated demand from public health laboratories due to the present outbreak.

Please contact your Esco Account Manager to discuss urgent deliveries of biological safety cabinets as required for your local markets.

Esco biological safety cabinets have passed more tests, in more languages, than any other biological safety cabinet in the world.