Lab Matters Summer 2024 | Page 23

ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH

The splash pad at the Country Club of Little Rock during the inspection by the Arkansas Department of Health which provided confirmation of outbreak pathogen Naegleria fowleri . Photo : Forrest Montgomery / Arkansas Department of Health

their jurisdiction ’ s health department . This poses a barrier for jurisdictions whose environmental microbiology testing capabilities may be situated in the laboratories affiliated with the jurisdiction ’ s environment department whose testing may be restricted to regulatory and compliance requirements . Moreover , staffing with environmental expertise has limited program growth in several jurisdictions both due to minimal funding and a high demand for public health laboratory scientists in general . Finally , laboratories have also communicated the need for training resources to be able to develop various environmental microbiology outbreak response capabilities , such as sampling plan development , environmental sample collection and emerging pathogen testing .

To support the development of EMOR capacity at the local level , the CoP is collaborating with CDC to build a programmatic strategic framework document . The resulting document will help jurisdictions understand program needs to conduct high-quality environmental investigations in response to waterborne outbreaks regarding staffing , trainings and laboratory processes , reporting , and partner and national collaborations . Combining this knowledge with access to a nationwide community for sharing best practices , the US will be better prepared to respond to emerging water-related pathogens and reduce the burden of environmentally transmitted infectious diseases . g

References :

1 . Collier , SA , Deng , L , Adam , EA , Benedict , KM , Beshearse , EM , Blackstock , AJ , et al . ( 2021 ). Estimate of Burden and Direct Healthcare Cost of Infectious Waterborne Disease in the United States . Emerging infectious diseases , 27 ( 1 ), 140 – 149 . https :// doi . org / 10.3201 / eid2701.190676

2 . Association of Public Health Laboratories . ( 2023 ). Leveraging Public Health Laboratory Science to Understand and Address Climate Change Health Impacts . Accessed March 29 , 2024 , from https :// www . aphl . org / aboutAPHL / publications / Documents / EH-PHL-Climate-Change-Testing . pdf