Notifiable Disease and Emergency

A Users’ Guide To Georgia’s Public Health Laboratory

Every year, Georgia newspaper headlines report multiple outbreaks of influenza as confirmed by the Georgia Public Health Laboratory (GPHL). While high-profile public health issues such as influenza capture the public’s attention, the vital screening, diagnostic and reference laboratory services provided by the GPHL throughout the year are essential components of Georgia’s overall public health infrastructure.

The Georgia Public Health Laboratory’s principal role is to provide analytical and technical support to continually evolving state and federal public health programs through:

Direct Program Support - including laboratory testing for STD, TB and HIV and for the Stroke and Heart Attack Prevention Program. Sexually transmitted diseases and HIV testing (in addition to newborn screening) produce the GPHL’s largest volume of specimens. Physicians who need HIV submittal forms or who have questions about ordering specimen collection kits can find updated forms and fact sheets on the GPHL’s Web page: http://health.state.ga.us/programs/lab/manual.asp.

Legal Requirements - including mandated newborn metabolic and sickle cell screening. Physicians throughout the state can access screening results with a touch-tone telephone 24 hours a day, seven days a week using the Voice Response System (VRS) for the Newborn Screening Program. To ensure confidentiality and security, a state medical license number or a submitter code number is required to access the system, as well as a personal identification number (PIN) assigned at the time of enrollment.

Once registered with the system, screening results for any child born in Georgia can be accessed using the Social Security number of the infant’s mother. The newly designed specimen collection form, which includes a space for the mother’s SSN, is already in circulation. To enroll in the system, go to http://health.state.ga.us/programs/lab/vrs.asp or call
(404) 327-6800.

Epidemiology - helps to monitor reportable diseases by providing notification of positive tests performed in the laboratory for influenza, rabies, Rocky Mountain spotted fever and giardiasis.

Each year, from October to mid-May, Georgia’s Division of Public Health tracks cases of influenza throughout the state with the help of volunteer sentinel physicians. While each individual case of influenza is not reportable to health authorities, influenza activity is monitored by watching the percentage of doctors’ visits for “influenza-like illness” (fever >100 F and cough and/or sore throat). In addition to weekly reporting, these volunteer providers send throat swabs from patients for laboratory testing (virologic confirmation and subtyping).

Based on testing conducted each week at the GPHL, the Georgia Division of Public Health posts information on circulating influenza strains on its Web site at http://health.state.ga.us/epi/flu/strain07.asp. The data is then entered into a database to help determine which strains will be included in next year’s influenza vaccine. All data collected by Georgia sentinel physicians are sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for inclusion in the nationwide network.

Reference Testing - including definitive, complex or new tests on specimens or referred cultures, principally in bacteriology, mycobacteriology or virology.
Visit http://health.state.ga.us/programs/lab/index.asp to download the Laboratory Services Manual for more information on GPHL services and contact information for managers in each program unit. Because the online version of the Laboratory Services Manual is due to be updated, e-mail gdphinfo@dhr.state.ga.us or call (404) 327-7900 if you cannot find the information you need online.

Editor’s note: This article is the first in a two-part series on the Georgia Public Health Laboratory. Part two of the article will appear in our next newsletter and will examine Georgia’s newborn metabolic screening program.