With measles and mumps making headlines again, the efforts of Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene (WSLH) scientists to fight outbreaks of these and other vaccine preventable diseases (VPD) are featured in the latest report from the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL).
In 2012, the WSLH was designated as 1 of 4 vaccine preventable disease reference centers in the U.S. Funding and support for the work comes from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and APHL.
The VPD Reference Centers use CDC test methods to provide routine VPD testing capacity for other public health laboratories as well as surge capacity for CDC in case of a large-scale outbreak. The 4 centers (Wisconsin, Minnesota, California and New York) also use HL7 messaging to electronically send test results to CDC, strengthening public health informatics capability between state labs and the CDC.
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 the WSLH performs as a VPD reference center enhances its surveillance and outbreak response capabilities in support of Wisconsin’s public health system.
APHL Vaccine Preventable Disease Annual Report (April 2015) 
APHL: VPD Reference Centers: Just in Time for Measles Outbreaks