A National Institutes of Health organization plans to award $9 million in grant funds to eight institutions to conduct safety training sessions for clinicians and other workers that can potentially be exposed to infectious diseases.
The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences partnered with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and several other agencies to launch the Ebola Biosafety and Infectious Disease Response Training program, NIH said Wednesday.
The three-year initiative is part of NIEHS’ Worker Training Program and aims to educate healthcare, waste management, mortuary, transportation personnel about environmental infection control and hazard recognition methods.
“We need to ensure that we have a workforce ready to contain these and the next infectious disease threats,” said Linda Birnbaum, NIEHS director.
“This new training program will help workers, who do so much to protect others, stay safe when working with patients or people in high risk situations,” Birnbaum added.
Grant recipients are:
- Duke University
- Emory University
- Indiana University
- International Chemical Workers Union Council
- Laborers’ International Union of North America Education and Training Fund
- Rutgers School of Public Health
- Steelworkers Charitable and Educational Organization
- University of Alabama at Birmingham