What Are Public Health Labs?

While clinical lab professionals focus on the individual, public health lab professionals focus on entire populations! Public health labs are at the forefront of protecting the public from biological and chemical terrorist threats to communicable diseases like avian flu or HIV to helping get newborns off to a healthy start. Public health labs can be found at the state and local levels, and they perform tests and other lab services unavailable elsewhere to analyze public health threats such as suspicious microbes and toxins, and provide the answers needed to mount an effective public health response. Working side-by-side with other health authorities, public officials, and emergency responders, public health lab professionals act to protect entire communities – it’s all in a day’s work!