The Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene (WSLH) has been chosen by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to be 1 of 3 National Influenza Surveillance Reference Centers for the next 5 years (2015 – 2020).
The WSLH, along with the state public health laboratories in California and New York, will provide influenza virus isolation, neuraminidase inhibition (i.e. anti-viral medication resistance) and whole genome sequencing testing services.
Test result data will be used by CDC to speed influenza vaccine development and better understand what influenza viruses are circulating and how they may be changing.
The WSLH will provide testing for Wisconsin and 21 other states.
Since 2009, the WSLH has served as a CDC virus isolation project partner looking for antigenic shift and drift in influenza viruses. This latest project builds upon that partnership.
The WSLH’s contract with CDC to serve as a national Vaccine Preventable Disease (VPD) Reference Center also has been renewed for another 5 years. The WSLH provides routine testing capacity for measles, mumps, rubella and other vaccine-preventable diseases for other public health laboratories as well as surge capacity for CDC in case of a large-scale outbreak.
The WSLH is not only performing viral and bacterial VPD testing for Wisconsin and 17 other state and local public health laboratories across the country, it is also the only VPD Reference Center providing test performance evaluation panels to public health laboratories so that they can assure the quality of their testing.
The work WSLH scientists perform with both reference centers enhances our surveillance and outbreak response capabilities to support Wisconsin’s public health system and the health of Wisconsinites.