SARS-COV-2 | Virus| Flu | Bio-safety | COVID-19 | Chickenpox | Mumps | Influenza

Biosafety cabinet- What it is and different types and how it can be used effectively?

Basically a biosafety cabinet is a micro-biosafety cabinet that is also called a biological safety cabinet, where it is mostly enclosed with ventilated laboratory workspace for pathogens.

The main use is to protect the people working with laboratory pathogens.  All exhaust air has HEPA filters(high-efficiency particulate air) that remove harmful viruses and bacteria. HEPA filters were commercialized in the 1950s.

It is similar to that of the laminar flow chamber, but this blows unfiltered air towards the user and considered to be safe for working with pathogenic agents.

Types of BSLs:

The U.S  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention classified  into four  types

BSL-1	BSL-2	BSL-3	BSL-4
This type of cabinet provides environmental and personal protection but fails to provide product protection. This type is used in case of working with non-causative microbes to humans. Eg: E.coli	This is suitable to work with pathogens that cause moderate harm to the environment and personal. An example includes the HIV virus, hepatitis A, B, C virus.	This type is used in serious pathogens to the environment that includes Mycobacterium tuberculosis, SARS coronavirus. All laboratory workers will be under medical surveillance and must wear personal protective equipment while inside the cabinet.	This is the highest level of safety cabinet. In this highly transmitted pathogens such as Ebola, Nipah, flavivirus work will be taking place. High safety and precautions measures will be taken inside this type of cabinet.

Currently, India has  3 BSL-4 laboratories they are

1. High-Security Animal Disease Laboratory(HSADL), Bhopal
2. Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology(CCMB), Hyderabad
3. National Institute of Virology, Pune

The COVID-19 is an airborne virus. Let us see what is an airborne virus and different types of it.

Airborne virus: This a type of virus that can be transmitted via aerosols and people get infected.

Different types include

1. Measles:  This virus can stay up to 2 hours in the air and infected people can exhale around 5000 viral particles into an hour. This virus kills around 2,00,000 every year

2. Influenza: This virus is very small and it can stay at least an hour in the air. It is Influenza A that is responsible for Flu in humans. Around 500,000 deaths are due to the influenza virus every year across the globe.

3. SARS-COV-2:   COVID-19 can stay up to 3 hours actively in the air. It varies with different surfaces.

4. Chicken Pox: A herpes virus called Varicella zoster causes chickenpox, it can stay up to several hours in the air. This virus causes a rash that turns into blisters. It takes up to 2-3 weeks for a pox to appear.

5. Swine Flu: This flu is caused by the H1N1 virus that causes a respiratory infection in humans. The droplets spread about 3 feet and remain in the air up to 2 to 8 hours.

6. Mumps: It is caused by the Rubula virus. This virus spread through sneeze and cough. It mostly affects the salivary gland, due to swelling as a result of infection.

7. Rubella Virus: This virus spreads through close contact with an infected person. It causes slight fever, mild rash and swollen glands. Humans are the only host for the rubella virus.