An Assessment of the Knowledge, Attitudes Practices among Medical Laboratory Technicians on Biosafety Precautions in Selected Government Healthcare Institutions in Colombo District Sri Lanka

Medical Laboratory services are an essential part of the entire health system and laboratory staff are at high risk for infections. But Sri Lanka shows lesser priority towards biosafety and biosecurity, lack of researches, training, national policies and legislation. The objective of this study is to assess the knowledge, attitudes and practices among Medical Laboratory Technicians (MLT) on biosafety precautions (BSP) in selected government healthcare institutions in Colombo district Sri Lanka. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among medical laboratory technicians (MLTs) (n=315) on BSP using a pretested self-administered questionnaire. The questions were based on biosafety level of working laboratory, aerosol formation, cleaning up spills, disease transmission, international colour code of waste management and basic essentials requirements in laboratories to achieve biosafety. Attitudes were assessed by likert scale. Practices were assed using clinical vignettes on BSP. Majority of MLTs had excellent knowledge (97.3% n=257), favourable attitude (90% n=210) and satisfactory level of practices (90.3% n=250). Satisfactory knowledge on BSP is significantly high in MLTs with less than 20 years’ experience (P=0.02). Unfavourable attitude were significantly associated with MLTs over 40 years of age (P=0.01). Unsatisfactory level of practices of MLTs are significantly associated with age more than 40 years (P=0.04) and the staff with no post graduate qualifications (P=0.04). It is concluded that the overall knowledge, attitudes and practices of BSP among MLTT were satisfactory and the MLTT are prone to loose knowledge, attitudes and practices in time progression. This is mostly happened in Sri Lanka due to lack of new updates of professional knowledge. Therefore regular continuous professional education for MLTT are highly recommended emphasizing key areas of BSP