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
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Summer 2024 LAB MATTERS 21 |