International Public Health Laboratory Twinning: An Innovative Approach to Strengthen the National Health Laboratory System in Uganda, 2014-2017.

International initiatives to strengthen national health laboratory systems in resource-poor countries are often hampered by unfamiliarity with the country's health laboratory environment and turnover of international partners during the initiative. This study provides an overview of, and lessons learned from, the use of a laboratory long-term partnership approach (ie, "twinning") to strengthen the national public health laboratory system in an international setting. We focused on the partnering of the Uganda Ministry of Health Central Public Health Laboratory (CPHL) with the New Mexico State Public Health Laboratory to help the CPHL become Uganda's national public health reference laboratory (Uganda National Health Laboratory Services [UNHLS] Institute) and leader of its nascent Uganda National Health Laboratory Network (UNHLN).

Using interorganizational partnerships to strengthen public health laboratory systems.

Due to the current economic environment, many local and state health departments are faced with budget reductions. Health department administrators and public health laboratory (PHL) directors need to assess strategies to ensure that their PHLs can provide the same level of service with decreased funds. Exploratory case studies of interorganizational partnerships among local PHLs in California were conducted to determine the impact on local PHL testing services and capacity.

Core functions and capabilities of state public health laboratories: a report of the Association of Public Health Laboratories.

Emerging natural and man-made threats to the health of the nations population require development of a seamless laboratory network to address preventable health risks; this can be achieved only by defining the role of public health laboratories in public and private laboratory service delivery. Establishing defined core functions and capabilities for state public health laboratories will provide a basis for assessing and improving quality laboratory activities. Defining public health laboratory functions in support of public health programs is the beginning of the process of developing performance standards for laboratories, against which state public health laboratories, and eventually local public health and clinical laboratories, will establish and implement best laboratory practices.

An ELISA for Detection of Botulinal Toxin Types A, B, and E in Inoculated Food Samples.

An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was developed to screen for the presence of botulinal toxin types A, B, and E in inoculated food studies. A commercially available trivalent antitoxin (Connaught Laboratories, Ontario) was used as a capture antibody and biotinylated for use as a secondary antibody. An avidin-alkaline phosphatase conjugate coupled with an enzymebased amplification system resulted in a high degree of sensitivity.