Microbiology reference laboratories enable the effective management of infectious diseases by tracking endemic diseases, monitoring rates of antimicrobial resistance, and providing data to assess how well vaccination programmes are working. These laboratories also detect outbreaks and were among the first to identify cases of COVID-19, monitored case numbers in real time, deployed public health responses to the pandemic, advised on policies to protect the public, and informed COVID-19 vaccination programmes.
The article highlights how, despite their key contributions to microbiology and the control of infection diseases worldwide, many laboratories struggle to secure sufficient funding for disease surveillance programmes from government health and science budgets. The authors suggest that, at least in part, this may be because the dedicated work performed by these laboratories is not often flashy and exciting.
However, the authors point out that the work of national reference laboratories is critical to public health, particularly as these labs ensure consistency in data generation and analyses over a long period of time, and the staff working in these labs provide highly specialised knowledge. This is especially important because the long-term nature of effective surveillance allows for the recognition of trends, as well as any deviations from long-term trends that may have an impact on public health. Such deviations might be a change in vaccine coverage, or an increase in antimicrobial-resistance organisms, or indeed the emergence of an outbreak.
Read the full story on the Nuffield Department of Population Health (NDPH) website.