HJAR Sep/Oct 2020

38 SEP / OCT 2020 I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF ARKANSAS DIRECTOR’S DESK ALOGUE COLUMN DIRECTOR’S DESK FOUNDED IN 1913, the PHL is directed by Dr. Katie Seely, as of July 1. Dr. Glen Baker retired June 30 after 15 years as its director. The PHL supports theADH and its programs by testing for safe food and drinking water, testing for infectious disease like tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, rabies, and Zika virus, as well as testing for chemical and biological agents of terrorism. It also serves as a reference laboratory for hospitals requiring assistance in identifying bacteria, and it is one of the few labs in the state that can test for select agents such as anthrax, brucella, or tularemia. Currently, 140 employees and 13 different labs are housedwithin the PHL. Some of these are mandated by state law, such as alcohol testing and newborn screening. The duties for each lab vary. In the alcohol testing lab, staff teach law enforcement officers how to use a breathalyzer and provide maintenance on all the breathalyzers. The newborn screening lab completes about 40,000 tests a year for 30 different diseases. In March of this year, a test for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) was added to the list of screenings. Because the SMA test is a molecular-based assay, it is performed in the molecular lab instead of the newborn screening lab. The PHL received the first shipment of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Arkansas’ Public Health Laboratory (CDC) COVID-19 diagnostic kits the week of February 9. Using equipment already in place for influenza testing, the lab verified the assay was functional. With this CDC method, the PHL could only run 20 samples at a time. Testing began March 2, with the first positive COVID-19 result announced on March 11. In May, the PHL purchased its first high throughput platform that uses a molecular test called polymerase chain reaction (PCR). This complicated test looks for viral RNA, and can find incredibly small amounts of it in a clinical specimen by first copying it into DNA, and then recopying millions of times to a level where it can be detected. Ninety-four The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged everyone, especially the Arkansas Department of Health’s Public Health Laboratory (PHL). The pandemic has shifted the way the PHL operates in many ways, but one thing that hasn’t changed is its ability to handle any request it receives. All services are still available.