Public Health Laboratory
The Role of the Public Health Laboratory
The primary function of the Montana Public Health Laboratory (MTPHL) is to provide services to identify and confirm the cause of a wide variety of diseases, and plays an essential role in surveillance of conditions of public health importance. The laboratory detects new and emerging, as well as already known diseases, and provides answers that support effective public health actions to protect Montanans.
State public health laboratories often perform tests that are unavailable elsewhere, coming face-to-face microbes, environmental toxicants, and other substances that threaten the health of Montanans. Because many of these tests are complex, laboratory professionals from MTPHL often provide consultation to support careful interpretations and decisions about alternate or confirmatory testing for clinical and environmental specimens.
Disease Surveillance is another important function of the MTPHL. The purposes of disease surveillance include:
- Monitoring the occurrence of reportable diseases
- Recognizing unusual occurrences of these diseases
- Assessing the effect of disease control efforts
The MTPHL has is comprised of two major sections:
Proposed public health laboratory fees
