History of the Public Health Laboratory
Servicing Montana since 1917
Overview
In October 1917, the Montana state health department announced the opening of a public health laboratory“...the laboratory will be ready to receive specimens embracing the following: any cultures, smears, or material for smears, for bacteriological determination in the diagnosis of diphtheria, pneumonia, meningitis, tuberculosis, Neisserian infection, ophthalmia neonatorium, etc.” 1 The one-person staff at that time analyzed and reported (sometimes by telegram, sent “collect”) about 100 tests per month. Today a staff of 35 persons performs and reports about 14,000 tests per month. Neither clinicians nor laboratorians in 1917 could have imagined the range and complexity of tests that would accompany dramatic scientific advances in the 20th century. Now labo¬ratory tests provide evidence for viral, fungal, and parasitic as well as bacterial infections, detect inborn errors of metabolism in newborns, identify chemical contaminants in environmental samples, and accomplish this with remarkable sensitivity and specificity.
The primary function of a public health laboratory is to provide testing of community health importance directed at the prevention and control of disease and improvement of the community’s health. The public health laboratory is concerned with the health of the community as a whole and places emphasis on prevention services, disease surveillance and control, and outreach to high risk populations.
References:
1. Secretary, Department of Public Health, letter to Montana physicians, October, 1917
