Knowledge, attitudes, and practices of biosafety and infectious waste management at the NCDC National Reference Laboratory, Abuja, Nigeria

Abstract

Introduction: Biosafety (BS) and safe infectious waste management (IWM) knowledge are crucial for safeguarding the laboratory and its personnel and preventing the release of biological waste into the environment. Biosafety and infectious waste management practices are influenced by personnel’s attitude; hence, the need for status assessment to enable application of interventions that are suitable for the system. This study assessed the knowledge, attitudes and practices of biosafety and waste management among staff of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention National Reference Laboratory (NCDC-NRL), Abuja, Nigeria Methods: The study was conducted from January to March 2025 using a cross-sectional study design. Technical and non- technical laboratory workers were sampled for this study. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data. The participants’ level of knowledge, attitude, and practice of biosafety and infectious waste management were assessed using SPSS version 20.0 for data analysis. Results: Of the 105 staff in the NCDC-NRL, only 80 participated in this study. Of all participants, 61 (76%) demonstrated an understanding of biosafety, while 63 (78.8%) strongly agreed that proper management of infectious waste plays a critical role in reducing environmental and health risks. Regarding self-assessed confidence in BS and IWM knowledge, 38.8% of respondents reported being strongly confident of their BS and IWM knowledge. Overall, the majority of the participants, 72.5%, 96.3% and 93.8% had good knowledge, positive attitudes and good practices towards biosafety and infectious waste management, respectively. The knowledge of biosafety and infectious waste management was statistically significantly associated with prior bio-safety training (p = 0.006). Likewise, attitude was associated with education (p < 0.001), job role (p = 0.049), and bio-safety audit (p < 0.021). while the job role was associated with good practice (p-value = 0.041). Conclusion: Significant knowledge exists among laboratory workers, and attitudes are mostly positive; however, some gaps still exist. Notably, knowledge needs to be fully translated into safe practices; as such, regular training and retraining of workers on biosafety and infectious waste management are highly recommended.