The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has requested the University to participate in the next phase of the National Inventory for Poliovirus Containment which is being conducted in conjunction with the World Health Organization (WHO)’s Global Polio Eradication Initiative and Global Action Plan. This inventory is to determine the storage locations of potentially infectious materials (PIM) containing poliovirus (i.e. material collected in a time and place where wild poliovirus (WPV) circulated or oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV) was in use). Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) is conducting an initial, short, internal survey to determine which investigators have materials which qualify for the more detailed inventory. If their laboratory tests, extracts, handles, or stores biological samples from humans, experimentally infected animals, sewage, or environmental waters, or they have tissue cultures which were inoculated with such samples and depending when and where they were collected, the Biological Safety Officer (BSO) will work with each researcher to determine how much of the survey pertains to their work. Basically, if the materials were collected in the USA after 2000, the full survey does NOT need to be completed. The results of the internal survey will be compiled and submitted in one response to the CDC.
University of Colorado Denver