The Biosafety and Infectious Disease Training Initiative (BIDTI), is an extension of our pilot project (funded under administrative supplement PA-15-148), and is consortium of Indiana University School of Public Health, Nebraska Biocontainment Unit, University of Texas School of Public Health, Harvard School of Public Health, and Dillard University. BIDTI's purpose is to positively and meaningfully impact the health of communities by providing well-designed, well-delivered and practical hands-on health, environmental infection control, and safety training to mitigate exposures to Ebola virus disease (EVD) and other serious infectious diseases by workers who may have a potential exposure. While these workers include healthcare and allied healthcare professionals, BIDTI will focus on training these: (1) facility workers who generate, label, load, transport, unload, receive, treat, store, analyze or dispose of potentially bio-hazardous materials; (2) workers who prepare for and conduct emergency response, including clean up and remediation of bio-hazardous material; (3) workers in settings such as mortuaries or laboratories that receive potentially infectious materials; and (4) officials with the responsibility to prevent, deter, or respond to biohazards, such as emergency medical technicians, law enforcement, etc. BIDTI objectives will be reached through innovative implementation of direct worker training and train-the-trainer programs. BIDTI faculty will train instructors to train others, thereby advancing the recognition and mitigation of hazards. In the supplemental award we successfully developed and delivered a pilot training program, and we are ready to expand our training distribution network. The Awareness-level program will emphasize risk assessment and management, universal and standard precautions, current immunizations, and self-care to mitigate risk from activities with no direct contact with infected body fluids. Operations level courses will provide hands-on practical training for recognizing and mitigating hazards associated with activities with potential direct contact with infected body fluids. We will incorporate site-specific scenario-based information, infectious disease protocols, guidance for selection of PPE and other supplies, communications plans and methods to evaluate the health hazards in various job tasks. Our program includes course evaluations (immediately upon course delivery), impact surveys (three months post course) and a formal evaluation of the entire program (guided by a logic model, found in our Research Strategy). Long term, our objectives are to prepare workers and communities for the actual risks associated with EVD and other serious infectious diseases, and to protect themselves, their colleagues and their environment from these exposures using sound scientific methods (including our research) and to promote the health, resiliency and financial stability of workers and their communities.
The Biosafety and Infectious Disease Training Initiative (BIDTI), is a consortium of Indiana University School of Public Health, Nebraska Biocontainment Unit, University of Texas School of Public Health, Harvard School of Public Health, and Dillard University. BIDTI objectives will be reached through innovative implementation of direct worker training and train-the-trainer programs, and their evaluation. Long term, BIDTI objectives are to prepare workers and communities for the actual risks associated with EVD and other serious infectious diseases, and to protect themselves, their colleagues and their environment from these exposures using sound scientific methods and to promote the health, resiliency and financial stability of workers and their communities.
| Le, Aurora B; Witter, Lesley; Herstein, Jocelyn J et al. (2017) A gap analysis of the United States death care sector to determine training and education needs pertaining to highly infectious disease mitigation and management. J Occup Environ Hyg 14:674-680 |
