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WSLH Hosts National Public Health Virology Workshop

MADISON, Wis. – In July, the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene (WSLH) hosted the national Virology Methods for Public Health Laboratories workshop at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Biotechnology Center and the WSLH’s clinical laboratory facility on the UW-Madison campus.

This year’s event was the fifth of the biennial workshops, sponsored by the National Laboratory Training Network. The WSLH has hosted all five of the workshops since their inception in 1999.

Twenty students from 18 states, the District of Columbia and the Republic of Mozambique participated in the week-long course.

Students explored the many facets of traditional, non-molecular virology testing methods used in public health laboratories through a combination of lectures, “hands-on” laboratory exercises and roundtable discussion groups. Additional discussions about molecular testing and laboratory preparedness for pandemic influenza rounded out the curriculum.

The workshop is designed for bench-level laboratory staff with beginning to intermediate level of experience in virology testing methods.

According to Peter Shult, Ph.D., director of the WSLH Communicable Disease Division and Emergency Laboratory Response, the workshop plays an important part in protecting the public’s health.

“With the increase in emerging viral diseases such as SARS and West Nile Virus and the potential for pandemic influenza, virology is a critical function for public health laboratories to fulfill their mission of protecting the health of the people in their state or communities,” Shult explains. “But, virology is also a very specialized discipline and it’s hard for public health labs to maintain staff expertise in these testing methods. The Wisconsin State Lab of Hygiene has been committed to offering these workshops to ensure that staff at public health laboratories around the country, and now internationally, have a minimal level of expertise. This workshop is really the only venue available for public health lab staff to learn basic virology testing methods.”

Faculty for the course included Peter Shult, Ph.D., Carol Kirk and Erik Reisdorf from the WSLH; Sandy Jirsa from the University of Iowa Hygienic Laboratory; David Schnurr, Ph.D., from the California State Public Health Laboratory; and Dan Wiedbrauk, Ph.D., from Warde Medical Laboratory in Ann Arbor, MI. WSLH Virology Laboratory staff providing assistance during the laboratory exercise portions of the workshop were Jim Powell, Tom Weiner, TJ Whyte and Dan Hammersly.

Sandy Jirsa (left), virology supervisor at the University of Iowa Hygienic Laboratory, reviews a map of viral cell culture tubes with a workshop student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Biotechnology Center training lab. At far right, another workshop student examines viral cell culture tubes in a microscope. (Photo by Toby Kaufmann-Buhler)

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Written By: Jan Klawitter, WSLH Public Affairs & Training Manager
Date: August 8, 2007

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