MEMBERSHIP
Disease Manager Debbie Rutledge, MBA,
MT (ASCP); Biosafety Official Gregory
Hovan, MBA; Laboratory Manager Clover
Carlisle, MLT; Laboratory Manager Karen
Pollard, MLT (ASCP), MSHS; Laboratory
Manager Emily Hanlin, MPH; Quality
Assurance Manager Fred Franze, MT
(ASCP); and Laboratory Manager Margaret
Zimmerman, ASQ-CQA.
Overall, the staff includes 18
microbiologists, five chemists, seven
managers, two IT professionals (one
shared with state services and one
full time at the laboratory), seven
administrators, six couriers/water sample
collectors, a quality assurance manager,
CLIA compliance officer, a housekeeping
professional, building maintenance
engineer, biosafety officer, and senior
leadership.
Revenue
The laboratory’s annual budget runs to
about $6 million. Roughly $2.3 million of
that total comes from federal grants, and
the remainder is state funding.
Testing
DE PHL performs over a million analyses
each year. The highest volume clinical
test area—50,000 tests/year—is for
sexually transmitted diseases. Clinical
microbiology and sequencing is another
high-volume area. The laboratory is a
member of the Antibiotic Resistance (AR)
Laboratory Network, the national PulseNet
foodborne disease surveillance network
and the Food Emergency Response
Network.
Since poultry is big business here, the
laboratory partners with the DNREC
to test chickens on a weekly basis for
mosquito-borne illnesses, such as
West Nile virus and Eastern Equine
Encephalitis. The molecular biology
laboratory also performs human rabies
and vaccine-preventable disease
testing, and conducts surveillance for
human influenza virus, arboviruses and
norovirus.
On the environmental side, the PHL
performs about 120,000 tests per year
on drinking water to measure levels
of bacteria, 25 different inorganic
compounds and 70 organic compounds.
PublicHealthLabs
@APHL
For just $4.00, the state’s 80,000 private
well owners can submit initial well water
samples to test for nutrients and bacteria.
Recently, the laboratory began a Legionella
test program.
Finally, as a member of the Laboratory
Response Network for both biological and
chemical agents, the PHL tests unknown
samples to detect and/or rule out a suite
of potential threat agents.
Success Stories
The Delaware PHL:
• Was one of the first laboratories in the
US to join CDC’s AR Laboratory Network
and to be up and running in 2017 with
validated methods. It was also one of
the first state PHLs to use APHL’s AIMS
portal to transfer AR test data to CDC’s
national AR database.
• Was one of the first states to move
from serology and PFGE to whole
genome sequencing for all enteric
disease testing to enhance foodborne
disease surveillance. (The laboratory
also employs WGS to support
surveillance of hospital-acquired
infections.)
• Is the only Delaware laboratory
with capability to track foodborne
pathogens. Just last year, the PHL
identified an internal, Salmonella
enteritidis outbreak linked to a vendor
supplying food to homeless people.
“Only internal state analysis would
have picked this up.”
• Is the only Delaware laboratory that
can test for Ebola virus, novel corona
virus and other emerging pathogens.
In 2017, the PHL detected a case of
chikungunya virus.
Challenges
• The laboratory facility: “The facility
was fine for its time in the early 1990s.
But technologies have become more
sensitive and sophisticated, requiring
a more narrow and precise range of
temperature and humidity exposure,
for example. It’s a challenge to
maintain that level of control, and that
means increased costs.”
APHL.org
• The workforce: “Because we’re
surrounded by major cities, we have to
put extra effort into finding qualified
personnel. We have people who
are ‘active’ seven days per week, if
necessary. Private labs don’t require
that level of commitment and can
offer significant sign-on bonuses. That
makes it difficult for us to recruit.”
• Procurement: “We have to work within
a political system that has institutional
protocols that move slower than
what the laboratory requires to meet
operational needs.”
Goals
• To continue to adopt cutting-edge
technology. “It has to be done; we
cannot stay with the old technologies
or we get run over. Often, we don’t
even wait for proven technologies; we’ll
adopt technologies that are still being
tested.”
• To make the public health laboratory a
center of excellence for the US. “We will
be the experts to come to over time.
And we have the expertise to do that.”
• To raise salary levels over time, a goal
requiring legislative action.
• To consolidate Delaware’s state public
health, environmental and agricultural
laboratories. “We have blueprints
for a new laboratory building to be
constructed, ideally, at our Smyrna site.
Cabinet secretaries have supported
this, and our state legislature is
considering it. Economically, it’s a good
move.”
• To intensify data-mining. “We have
more than 40 years of data on surface
waters, ground waters and other
areas of interest that can be used
for various reasons, from permitting
to assessments to predicting future
outcomes. No one has used these
comprehensively. We’ve proposed
a high-level group that will do only
data-mining to identify health and
environmental ‘hot zones,’ inform
resource management and gauge
impacts on public and environmental
health.” n
Fall 2019 LAB MATTERS
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