Determining
Risk Group
A critical step in planning the use of a biohazardous material is to make
an initial determination regarding the appropriate level of risk associated
with the agent and its proposed uses. It is the investigator's responsibility
to make an initial risk assessment based on the Risk
Group (RG) of an agent. Agents are classified into four Risk Groups
(RGs) according to their relative pathogenicity for healthy adult humans
by the following criteria:
-
Risk Group 1 (RG1) agents are not associated with disease in healthy adult
humans.
-
Risk Group 2 (RG2) agents are associated with human disease which is rarely
serious and for which preventive or therapeutic interventions are often
available.
-
Risk Group 3 (RG3) agents are associated with serious or lethal human disease
for which preventive or therapeutic interventions may be available.
-
Risk Group 4 (RG4) agents are likely to cause serious or lethal human disease
for which preventive or therapeutic interventions are not usually available
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