Institutional Biosafety Committee Risk Group Determination

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. 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