COVID-19 Bio-security Protocols Unit

Cost associated with compulsory isolation in Colombia as a result of COVID-19 is between 1.3 and 16.5 million dollars per month, in Antioquia there are 3,000,000 employed, of which approximately 1,000,000 are at risk of contracting COVID- 19 for the activity they carry out. COVID-19 Biosecurity Protocols Unit (BPU-19) provides advisory services to companies in Antioquia (Colombia) in the drafting, implementation, monitoring and auditing of biosecurity guidelines issued by the Colombian government for the prevention and mitigation of COVID-19 contagion in the framework of economic recovery. BPU-19 has Microbiologists experts in biosecurity and disinfection processes who provide advice focused on the economic activity of the company, training employees to create adherence to measures that have an impact on other activities of daily life of people, decreasing the economic losses associated with COVID-19. BPU-19 supports companies for a safe and sustained economic recovery.

Due to COVID-19, Colombia entered into compulsory isolation; in April, national unemployment rate was 19.8%, which was 9.5% higher than in the same month of 2019.  In Antioquia 57% of companies completely suspended their operations and 32.1% partially suspended them.  Only 10.8% continued operating.

On April 27, the National Government started to allow economic reactivation to gradually begin.   This reactivation required companies to write bio-safety protocols according to National Government standards.  However, these same governmental standards also allowed non-expert professionals, who were not health experts and who did not have knowledge of bio-security standards, to write protocols that did not comply with governmental standards regarding the prevention or spread of the virus within each company. 

Many companies, had their protocols rejected by the local government. The urgency of generating income for these companies, led to many of them drafting protocols with large gaps in their bio-security protocols. Most of these protocols were drafted with the sole purpose of obtaining permission to resume business activities and had inadequate or no procedures to implement the protocols.

In Antioquia there are 157,365 formal companies.  That number far exceeds the governments' regulatory ability, thus generating a high probability of increasing the rate of infections.

COVID-19 Biosecurity Protocols Unit (BPU-19) is a working group made up of Microbiologists who are experts in biosecurity and disinfection processes, they articulate microbiology scientific knowledge and social contributions to the community by accompanying companies of various economic sectors in drafting, implementation, documentation and auditing biosafety protocols so that government guidelines are sustained over time and their impact on the prevention and mitigation of the risk of contagion is expected, contributing economic recovery of antioquia in a safe and sustained way. In BPU-19 we analyze the characteristics of each company to adjust the biosafety and disinfection protocols to their needs, we focusing on critical points and reducing associated costs, we train employees by electronic media, we reinforce the teaching through audiovisual technology and digital information that is sent to mobile phones of each employee weekly, so that they can later disseminate them in their community and them performance greater adherence to self-care behaviors.

BPU-19 directly benefits formal companies in Antioquia, we provide entrepreneurs and their employees with simple tools and knowledge for the prevention and mitigation of the risk of contagion of COVID-19, adjusting the measures to each company based on their missionary activities so that the economic recovery is quick and thus mitigate the negative economic impact caused by compulsory isolation in Antioquia households; We promote self-care techniques among workers for the prevention of COVID-19 infection, which will be disseminated by them in their community, expanding the scope of management to people of all ages with a member of their family in a company advised by BPU-19; We are managing alliances with the Mayor's Office of Medellín and the University of Antioquia, to provide advice to formal companies at a very low cost or by grant, and to strengthen the university-productive sector link in order to bring scientific activities closer to the community, Through strategic alliances, it is expected to directly and indirectly accompany all formal companies.

BPU-19 is aligned with the HEALTH SECURITY & PANDEMICS challenge since we promote self-care behaviors by expert biosecurity and disinfection personnel for the prevention and mitigation of COVID-19 contagion in Antioquia companies, so that economic reactivation is safe and sustained, expecting a decrease in economic losses, the unemployment rate and the flattening of the contagion curve by COVID-19; Likewise, we provide people of productive age with simple teachings about COVID-19 that can be disseminated in their community.

For the financial recovery, the national government of Colombia on April 24 of this year, issued Legislative Resolution 000666 where the guidelines for bio-segurity protocols were verified, in order to prevent and mitigate the risks of contact by COVID-19.

BPU-19 It is the only company made up of professionals in the health area, graduated by the University as "Microbiologists and Bioanalysts", experts in microbiology and infectious agents; In addition to relying on national legislation, as an added value, we articulate the scientific knowledge of microbiology as a tangible contribution to society, beyond obtaining permits, at BPU-19 we seek by verifying and monitoring adherence protocols to self-care behaviors with an impact on the family nucleus and social environment.

Through continuous accompaniment, we seek to generate a true contribution in mitigating the economic and social consequences caused by the health emergency of COVID-19 and transcending the level of social solutions. In our country, non-expert professionals who do not have knowledge of bio-security are involved in bio-safety protocols, according to national Government standards, but we are the only ones with scientific and pedagogical knowledge for the transfer of knowledge to language and the level of the different actors in the production chain.

Based pedagogical knowledge we use didactic strategies to reach employers and their employees according to the educational level of each one. At BPU-19 we support on audiovisual media, electronic media and digital information, we use existing technological applications for the transfer of information. During the implementation of the protocols we carry out online talks, workshops and conferences, we also teach how to use and encourage the use of the Corona App, created by the Colombian government to monitor the health status of people and generate alerts about people. spread on the perimeter. BPU-19 contemplates in the medium term developing a mobile application in charge of monitoring and controlling frequent handwashing and physical distance between employees, using the mobile phone of each of them allowing the employer to monitor compliance with the measures. In addition to prevention, the application will provide information on self-care, healthy lifestyles and prevention of COVID-19 to strengthen the pedagogical work carried out by other means; This information would serve to conduct a behavioral analysis of people and assess their adherence to protocols, with potential in political decision-making on COVID-19.

Currently, information technologies are widely used for the teaching of diverse knowledge, from simple indications given synchronously to carry out an activity to complete degrees, technology-based communication has allowed us to expand knowledge, to know new worlds without visiting them, make video calls between people from different parts of the world; Information technology in combination with education has generated new relationships between knowledge and teaching didactics, virtual education has expanded the possibility of inclusion in training processes to a greater number of people and that knowledge is disseminated among people making their reach greater.  In Colombia, multidimensional poverty in 2018 was at 19.6% and the poverty rate is around 0.5, hence, it is important to use educational but accessible technological tools ensuring the inclusion of the most disadvantaged. Therefore, we believe that using easily accessible information technologies as support in the COVID-19 Bio-security Protocol Unit (BPU-19) allows for broader coverage of the population in terms of preventing the spread of COVID-19.

COVID-19 BPU is a unit of bio-security protocols for COVID-19 created to support Antioquia companies during the economic reactivation in the framework of the COVID-19 pandemic in a safe and sustained manner according to the standards of the Colombian Government. BPU-19 has health professionals, Bachelors of Microbiology and Bioanalysis, to write, implement, and verify bio-security protocols to prevent and mitigate the risk of COVID-19 infection in Antioquia companies; we promote self-care to contribute to the flattening of the Sars-Cov-2 contagion curve after isolation. 

BPU-19 has accompanied companies in Antioquia through online training on preventive measures, evaluation, and adaptation of facilities, design of posters and electronic bulletins on COVID-19, monitoring of implementation, and verification of adherence to the protocol over time. In the companies we have advised, we have made workers understand the importance of preventive measures and incorporate them into their daily lives. We have trained, on average, 600 people to promote the prevention of COVID-19 infection in different life scenarios; additionally, we provide digital material on COVID-19 for workers to appropriate the knowledge and disseminate it in their community. 

Our closest goal is to ally with the University of Antioquia and the Medellín Mayor's Office to carry out consultancies at a very low cost or by grant, expanding our coverage to more companies and schools before they start classes. We want to act as external advocates for the Health Secretary of Medellín in monitoring compliance with the protocols; the above is articulated with the other efforts made by various department institutions to mitigate the negative consequences caused by COVID-19. In the medium term, we want to develop a mobile application to monitor people's behavior regarding physical isolation and handwashing frequency , generating epidemiological data to cross information with the disease outbreak areas, after obtained data can use by policymakers.

 After overcoming the COVID-19 health emergency, the Unit will continue to operate, working on biosafety protocols for frequent diseases in developing countries such as neglected diseases, vector-borne diseases, and tropical diseases; in order to support the national programs that are currently being carried out to deal with these diseases.

BPU-19 has currently advised 11 micro-companies (i.e. companies with capital assets of $ 115,268.00 or less); Directly, an average of 600 people have received biosafety training and support in their workplaces, we have provided digital information to workers and its dissemination has been encouraged. In one year we plan to reach 40% of the employed population in Colombia (i.e. 7,874 thousand people) with the protocols for COVID-19 and 15% of the population at risk of contracting neglected infectious diseases, tropical diseases, and vector-borne diseases in our country. In 5 years we plan to arrive with biosecurity protocols for neglected infectious diseases, tropical diseases and vector-borne diseases to all of Latin America in alliance with research groups from the different university institutions of these countries; Using information technologies and in liaison with the health authorities of each region, we plan to reach millions of people at risk of suffering from any of these diseases.

Our immediate goals are to deliver accurate, understandable and easy to understand information on guidelines for preventing the COVID-19, create adherence to self-care behaviors among employees of Antioquia with special emphasis on those at greatest risk of falling ill from COVID-19 for their occupation, we also want to act as external operator of the Government of Antioquia in the verification and auditing of biosafety protocols for the prevention and mitigation of the risk of spreading disease Coronavirus (COVID-19). By the end of 2020 we want to make presence throughout Colombia, accompanying different companies with guidelines against Coronavirus Wuhan, work hand in hand with the national government and National Institute of Health to monitor compliance with biosecurity protocols steadily and reach economic recovery of the country without exceeding the operational capacity of the health system of our country.

In 5 years we plan to work hand in hand with the health authorities  of the Latino Americans countries on drafting and implementing guidelines for people at risk come down with disease  neglected, diseases transmitted by vectors or tropical diseases; according to WHO these diseases affect the poorest populations in tropical and subtropical areas around the world and although there are guidelines for prevention and control, we believe that using the same model protocols bioseguiridad for COVID-19 may contribute to the work being done by WHO.

1. The lack of clear policies about the professional competence of suitable people for advising companies on compliance with bio-security protocols is a limiting factor due at this time non-expert professionals who do not have knowledge of bio-security standards are doing this work improperly and employers do not understand that besides to writing a protocol, we must work together to prevent COVID-19 infection and that by adopting measures without relevance, they incur unnecessary expenses.
2. The current importance that has research on the virus, developing diagnostic methods and new vaccines trials cause this type of projects are less important, make it difficult to get money to finance it.
3. In Colombia, there is money investment to prevent the accelerated spread of the COVID-19 disease, however, at the moment there is not funding earmarked for unlike entities than the government to support the monitoring of compliance with the protocols and check them.
4. False beliefs and unknowingness about COVID-19 have made adherence to prevention guidelines are very low and increase the probability of massive infections.
5. In our country, every year a lot of persons in rural and urban areas be sick of neglected diseases, vector-borne diseases and tropical diseases; currently it there is financing for they are attended but is very low although and many people work to control and to eradicate these diseases, there are not unified and easily understood protocols for people at risk, we believe that it will be difficult to introduce a new work model to cope these diseases.

1. We will overcome the lack of policies about the competence of advisers in bio-security protocols through an alliance with the Antioquia University and regulatory entities such as the Mayor's Office of Medellín and the National Institute of Health, with which it will be verified in compliance with the protocols.
2. As far as positive results are obtained through training for the adherence to and monitoring of bio-security protocols, we will obtain more financial support from different government entities.
3. At the moment, we are managing an alliance with the University of Antioquia is and through this, we hope this year work as external operators of the Mayor's Office of Medellín for the training and monitoring of biosecurity protocols, our goal is to prevent companies from closing for presenting cases of COVID-19 and that the accompaniment continuous.
4. From our scientific knowledge, we work hard on the training of people, taking our knowledge to an easy to understand language, as we can reach more people through information technologies, we will disseminate relevant information to reduce ignorance and gradually eliminate false beliefs about COVID-19.
5. The University of Antioquia has been working for many years on neglected diseases, vector-borne diseases and tropical diseases, we will take advantage of this knowledge to draft biosafety protocols and make them available to national authorities so that they can be adopted over time

no se aplica

Nuestro equipo de solución está conformado por dos microbiólogos al tiempo completo, atendemos a las empresas que tienen asesoramiento y apoyo en la implementación de protocolos, a través de la asociación con la Escuela de Microbiología de la Universidad de Antioquia contrataremos a más microbiólogos según lo requerido el mercado

Los profesionales expertos en atención de la salud con licenciatura en microbiología tienen el conocimiento científico sobre los virus y la capacidad de asesorar a las personas sobre protocolos de bioseguridad, podemos ofrecer información relevante y fácil de entender a la población, con nuestra intervención en colaboración con la Microbiología escuela de la Universidad de Antioquia y entidades gubernamentales podemos asesorar a más empresas a muy bajo costo o por subvención, los datos generados por BPU-19 pueden usarse para la toma de decisiones políticas y evaluar el impacto epidemiológico de las medidas de autocuidado en el control de la propagación de COVID-19, para extrapolar este modelo a otras enfermedades infecciosas, que representan un problema de salud pública en los países en desarrollo. 

Gracias a nuestra experiencia en el cuidado de la salud y el manejo de microorganismos, podemos proporcionar una solución que impacte positivamente la salud de las personas y contribuya a mantener la economía del país en medio de la emergencia de salud causada por COVID-19. 

Actualmente, estamos gestionando una alianza con la Escuela de Microbiología de la Universidad de Antioquia, para ampliar nuestro alcance y promover comportamientos de adhesión a los protocolos de bioseguridad. Por lo tanto, esperamos que la alianza BPU-19 y la Universidad de Antioquia puedan operar como una entidad externa del alcalde de Medellín y el gobierno de Antioquia, monitoreando el cumplimiento de las medidas de prevención y mitigación de COVID-19.

En cinco años esperamos trabajar de la mano con las autoridades de salud de los países latinoamericanos afectados por enfermedades olvidadas, enfermedades transmitidas por vectores y enfermedades tropicales, para generar pautas unificadas y entregar información clara y fácil de entender para el control. de estas infecciones, también gestionaremos alianzas con grupos de investigación y universidades que están desarrollando proyectos con este grupo de enfermedades para que el impacto de la intervención sea mayor.

Biosecurity Protocols unit COVID-19 (BPU-19) is a team that provides biosafety advice to companies in Antioquia, our purpose is to provide employees and employers with easily applicable and reproducible knowledge to prevent with coronavirus disease (COVID-19) during the economic reactivation, complying with the guidelines of the standards issued by the national government. By achieving adherence in self-care behaviors, workers will apply them in public transport, their homes, and other environments, reducing the risk of contagion and the economic losses associated with health care and absenteeism. 

The stakeholders of our business are the companies that pay for quality consultancies, we are working to partially or totally subsidize the consultancies and training, public or private organizations with which we can make strategic alliances to obtain financing or technical consultancy.

At the moment, our income is supported by the sale of the drafting and implementation service for bio-security protocols. We are managing an alliance with the School of Microbiology of the University of Antioquia, to reach more people. In alliance with the University of Antioquia, we plan to be external evaluators Medellín municipal Hall of compliance with the protocols and provide support at very low cost or by subsidy to companies that need it, seeking contracts with government entities to increase revenues for the Unit.

 Our fixed expenses are the payment of the professionals who work with us, the use of the internet and computer equipment and a telephone line to carry out commercial management.

Our path towards sustainability is based on offering support services in the bio-security measures necessary to reactivate productive activities in each company based on its needs, this sustainability will be reinforced this year through alliances with the health authorities of Antioquia and Colombia and for the year next with Latin American countries. 

Obtaining contracts as external evaluators of compliance with the protocols, we will obtain more financing source and we will be able to advise companies at a lower cost, for this we will have more professionals and we will divide our team into 2 subunits, one of them will be in charge of the consultancies and another subunit of surveillance to avoid conflicts of interest. 

We will manage resources for the protocols of neglected diseases, vector-borne diseases, and diseases, relying on the different programs that the affected countries have to attend to these pathologies. Besides, we will also manage resources with the research groups for this group of diseases, in exchange for the academic and epidemiological information that the unit will generate.

We firmly believe in our project, we believe that from our profession as Microbiologist, we must promote the appropriation of knowledge, microbiologists love the laboratory, but we also have a lot to deliver to society, being able to deliver our learning to achieve a social impact is very important and more so.

In the midst of the health emergency due to COVID-19, that is why we want to work to achieve a positive change in people's behavior regarding this disease. We are confident that with SOLVE's advice we will be able to broaden our vision of the solution and be able to extrapolate the model of biosafety protocols to other infectious diseases that affect millions of people around the world and with easily and clearly guidelines can improve their condition. 

For us, it is very important to be able to scale our solution, we need advice and the support of solve to do it, through financial support we can develop our mobil application to monitor compliance with biosafety protocols, generate epidemiological data that can be used by policyholders of political decisions, which can positively impact the lives of many people.

We want to develop an mobil application to monitor adherence to self-care behaviors inside and outside the company, it will work with the mobile phone and calculate the distance in meters between people, determining if it complies with the standard of physical distance, it can be used by any establishment with a high flow of people; the frequency of handwashing will be evaluated by means of a “Token” installed in the handwashing points, this will be connected to a command center for each place and will count the times the handwashing point is used, these Data may be crossed with COVID-19 cases generating information on adherence and impact of the measures.

We need financing to subsidize the services of the BPU-19, in this way more people will have access to consultancies, training and audits for free, without depending entirely on financing from the Colombian government.

We would like to be able to partner with organizations that guide us in the process of scaling our solution, to be able to reach more people and to make them aware of the importance of self-care to prevent COVID-19 and other infectious diseases, that they can spread the knowledge that the BPU-19 puts at your disposal would be a great achievement for us. 

We want to bring biosecurity training and protocols to the community, schools, and small businesses for free promoting the inclusion of the most disadvantaged, therefore we would like to partner with organizations that help us finance BPU -19 expenses. 

The potential of this solution can be easily demonstrated, it is simple but it can have a great impact on the lives of many people, a positive impact on the economic recovery of many countries around the world during the COVID-19 emergency, an impact on the declining numbers of those affected by tropical diseases, neglected diseases, and vector-borne diseases worldwide, therefore, we need to partner with influential organizations that help us globally show the potential for impact by scaling the solution, and that Government entities see the BPU-19 as a feasible solution that contributes to the efforts that are underway. 

MITD-Lab to improve work with the disadvantaged communities.

MIT Institute for data, systems, and society, for mobile application development and data analysis of BPU-19

Institute for Work and Employment Research,  to evaluate protocols for return to work and improve them

We want to scale our solution as soon as possible so that the impact on the prevention of accelerated contagion of COVID-19 is relevant enough to change lives and inspire other people to work on prevention measures for this and other infectious diseases, with the Elevate award we will be able to partially or completely subsidize the services provided by the biosecurity protocols unit for COVID-19 and thus more companies will be advised by qualified people on biosecurity, besides, they may be better prepared to face COVID-19 cases in their corporation. The money will also be used in the development of the mobile application to monitor compliance with social isolation and handwashing measures and for analysis information provided for the app; This application will be modified in the future to follow the protocols of other infectious diseases.
We will also invest money in computer equipment, audiovisual equipment, and internet services to deliver all digital information to companies, schools, and communities.
We will also continue to manage financial aid from government institutions and entities in Colombia to be able to scale our solution. We will make the most of the entire team of advisers and technical and academic support offered by the Elevate award since the hallmark of the BPU-19 is to put scientific knowledge at the service of the community in a clear and easy to understand way.