If you recently received a letter from the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene Chemical Emergency Response Unit asking you to take a survey about our brodifacoum testing services, please follow this link to the survey — https://uwmadison.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_513rPVMWAeMsFUN
The survey will close on July 31, 2021. Thank you.
Peter Shult, emeritus director of the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene (WSLH) Communicable Disease Division, received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) in a May 19th virtual ceremony.
The APHL Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes individuals with a history of distinguished service to APHL and who made significant contributions to the advancement of public health laboratory science and/or practice and exhibited leadership in the field of public health and/or influenced public health policy on a national or global level.
“I am deeply honored and appreciative of this award,” Shult said. “However, in my mind, I share this recognition with many individuals, including my Directors (3 in total) over the years who unfailingly mentored, enabled and supported my efforts, my WSLH staff and colleagues who made everything happen and my many collaborators at APHL, CDC and UW-Madison who shared a common vision. This award is all of ours and I thank you all.”
Shult, who retired in early 2021, dedicated his 32 year career to serving the public’s health, public health laboratories and the public health system. A national leader in infectious disease laboratory surveillance, Shult helped lead the APHL/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) collaborative Influenza Surveillance Workgroup, which was responsible for developing a novel approach to strengthen influenza surveillance in the United States.
In the mid-1990s, he developed the innovative Wisconsin Clinical Laboratory Network (WCLN), one of the first laboratory-based surveillance networks in the United States that serves as a model for public health laboratories across the country.
The true value of the WCLN was demonstrated in the coordinated response of the laboratory network to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the pandemic’s first months, the 130+ WCLN laboratories looked to the WSLH for information and guidance and supported SARS-CoV-2 testing at the WSLH. As commercial tests received FDA Emergency Use Authorization, the WSLH supported the clinical laboratories in bringing on testing by providing guidance and validation panels. This allowed for more rapid testing closer to the patient and quickly increased testing capacity within the state.
Shult has also contributed significantly to the library of public health knowledge. During his career he has authored or co-authored more than 50 peer reviewed journal articles. Since 1998, he has been a clinical professor in the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, teaching courses on emerging infectious diseases as well as vaccines in a global society. Many of his students have gone on to careers in the field of public health.
“Pete’s life-long service to public health within the borders of Wisconsin and beyond exemplify the Wisconsin Idea,” said WSLH Director and UW Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering Jamie Schauer. “He has been a dedicated mentor and educator at the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene and the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has played a key role in shaping our national preparedness and response for infectious disease, emerging threats and importantly pandemics.”
APHL says this award “… is not a retirement award, but a true Lifetime Achievement Award.” Shult’s true lifetime impact is best summed up by his nominators –
“His passion, dedication and commitment to the field of public health have made a lasting impact on the lives of those who know him or work with him, but also countless others he has never met. This truly defines the achievement of one who has given his all for others, not for himself, but for humanity; for the public’s health.”
More about Shult’s accomplishments and his Lifetime Achievement Award
More about all of APHL’s 2021 award winners
Please note the following changes to the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene’s operations due to the observance of the Memorial Day holiday.
The table below lists the hours of operations for our Clinical Specimen Receiving departments. We will have staffing to accept clinical specimens at both our 2601 Agriculture Drive and our 465 Henry Mall facilities on Saturday, May 29th.
As always, if you have an off-hours emergency, please call the WSLH Emergency Pager at 608-263-3280.
| DATE |
2601 Agriculture Drive Clinical Specimen Receiving |
465 Henry Mall Clinical Specimen Receiving |
| Saturday, May 29, 2021 | 6:30 AM – 12:30 PM | 7:00 AM – Noon |
| Sunday, May 30, 2021 | CLOSED | CLOSED |
| Monday, May 31, 2021 | CLOSED | CLOSED |
Alana Sterkel, PhD, D(ABMM), SM(ASCP)CM has been promoted to Associate Director of the WSLH Communicable Disease Division (CDD) and appointed Assistant Professor (CHS) in the University of Wisconsin Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. Dr. Sterkel has served as a Co-Assistant Director for CDD since 2017.
Dr. Sterkel received her PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her doctoral research focused on subversion of innate immunity by Blastomyces dermatitidis. Following completion of her PhD, Dr. Sterkel was awarded the Clinical Microbiology Fellowship through the UW Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine with a research focus on clinical infections.
After joining the WSLH, Dr. Sterkel has continued her research, which focuses on host-pathogen interactions and investigating clinical data to answer public heath related research questions. An active project in her lab is to investigate the impact of pollution on the immune response to respiratory infections.
In addition, she teaches courses at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and developed an Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) accredited training rotation for UW infectious disease fellows and pathology residents. Dr. Sterkel also presents scientific talks on the local, regional, state, and national levels, and has published more than 20 peer-reviewed publications.
She is a Diplomat of the American Board of Medical Microbiology and serves as a peer-reviewer for the Journal of Clinical Microbiology, the Journal of Clinical Microbiology and Laboratory Medicine, and the Diagnostic Microbiology and Infectious Disease Journal.
Ernie Stracener (right), WisCon program manager, demonstrates fitting Danica Harrier, WisCon industrial hygiene consultant, for an N95 respirator at a warehouse location in Madison, Wisconsin. (Photo by Bryce Richter / UW-Madison)
The WisCon Onsite Safety and Health Consultation program at the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene helps 300+ small businesses a year provide safe and healthy workplaces for their employees and meet federal OSHA requirements – all for free.
During the pandemic, WisCon expanded its consulting and training services to also include a focus on COVID-19 prevention and control. They also are providing COVID-19 Respiratory Protection Program Administrator Training to support the thousands of skilled nursing and residential care facilities in the state.
Learn more about how WisCon helps small businesses and their employees
WSLH Microbiologist Tim Davis interacts with a MiSeq instrument during COVID-19 genomic sequencing. (Photo by Bryce Richter / UW-Madison)
In early March 2020, the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene was one of only two labs in Wisconsin providing SARS-CoV-2 testing.
But drawing on its decades-long tradition of working closely with clinical labs in the state, the WSLH and the 100+ members of the Wisconsin Clinical Laboratory Network were able to dramatically expand testing capacity.
Learn more about the history of the WSLH-WCLN partnership and how vital it is to the health of the people of Wisconsin.
Responsibility.org and the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene (WSLH) Forensic Toxicology Section have launched the National Resource Toxicologist Pilot Program.
The program is a multi-year (2020-2022) national assessment of forensic toxicology laboratories to identify challenges, successes, gaps, and funding issues related to impaired driving (drugs and alcohol) testing and data. To launch the program, Responsibility.org is providing a three-year, $150,000 grant to the WSLH – Forensic Toxicology Section.
Increasing numbers of impaired drivers are multi-substance impaired, meaning they have both drugs and alcohol in their system. However, due to resource constraints many forensic toxicology laboratories are not able to test for a full range of drugs as well as alcohol. This gives an incomplete picture of the scope of impaired driving in the United States.
Plus, in areas where impaired driving test results are also used by the judicial system and/or public health to determine whether/where impaired drivers should go to treatment, not knowing the full extent of what substances the driver was using means decision makers don’t have all the information they need to best assess and assist the driver.
Impaired driving is a systemic multi-factor problem, and toxicology laboratories are key potential sources of data to better understand the full extent of the problem in order to increase public safety and decrease tragedies resulting from impaired driving. To better understand the full extent, additional research is needed to assess the financial and operational challenges that toxicology labs face in testing for substances.
In partnership with the Society of Forensic Toxicologists, WSLH Forensic Toxicology Section Director Amy Miles will conduct a national assessment of state toxicology laboratories to improve the quality of data and foster communication with stakeholders such as state highway safety offices, law enforcement, attorneys and judges to gauge the needs of laboratories.
Learn More
On March 4th Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene (WSLH) Communicable Disease Division Director Dr. Allen Bateman joined Kate Archer Kent on Wisconsin Public Radio’s The Morning Show to discuss identifying COVID-19 variants using DNA (aka genomic) sequencing.
The WSLH is one of 4 labs in Wisconsin performing genomic sequencing of COVID-19 virus samples to identify and track the spread of variants in the state.
03/04/2021 The Morning Show interview
02/15/2021 Wisconsin Public Radio story about COVID19 genomic sequencing
On March 15, 2021, the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene (WSLH) Communicable Disease Division will begin testing for Chlamydia trachomatis (CT), Neisseria gonorrhoeae (GC), and Trichomonas vaginalis (TV) using our new Hologic Panther System. This change in testing requires different collection kits from previous test methods and previous collection kits will no longer be accepted.
Please refer to the pictorial collection kit guide to determine which kits are most appropriate for your patients.
The BD collection kits we previously accepted may be discarded after the change has occurred. They will no longer be accepted for testing after March 31, 2021.
Existing submitters will be sent new Aptima collection kits in preparation for the change. If you do not receive these kits and would like them, please contact our Clinical Orders Department at 800-862-1088 and request collection kits to meet your testing needs for up to 2 weeks at a time.
This change in testing will allow us to continue to provide highly accurate testing with potentially shorter time to results – and all at the same cost.
Complete new test announcement and pictorial collection kit guide
Kayley Janssen pipettes sewage samples before beginning the filtration process.
Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene Senior Scientist Martin Shafer published an article about Wisconsin’s COVID-19 wastewater surveillance program in Central States Water, the official magazine of the Central States Water Environment Association.
The wastewater surveillance program is a joint collaboration between the WSLH, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Freshwater Sciences and the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. By routinely monitoring the amount of genetic material of SARS-CoV-2 present in wastewater, WSLH and UW-M scientists can determine whether, and to what extent, the SARS-CoV-2 virus (the virus causing COVID-19) is circulating within communities in Wisconsin.
Track the results of wastewater surveillance testing and learn more at https://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/covid-19/wastewater.htm