Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL)

Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) A healthier world through quality laboratory systems. http://www.APHL.org APHL represents state and local governmental health laboratories in the United States.

The Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) works to strengthen laboratory systems serving the public’s health in the United States and globally. Its members, known as “public health labo​ra​tories,” monitor, detect and respond to health threats.

This , we're reflecting on 30 years of a network that has quietly made your food safer: PulseNet.Launched in 1996 and d...
06/07/2026

This , we're reflecting on 30 years of a network that has quietly made your food safer: PulseNet.

Launched in 1996 and developed in partnership with APHL and CDC, PulseNet uses whole genome sequencing to analyze the DNA fingerprints of foodborne pathogens and link cases across the country. In three decades, the network has helped prevent an estimated 270,000 illnesses and contributed to the recall of more than 1 billion pounds of contaminated food. Investigations that once took weeks can now be resolved in days. That speed saves lives.

Read how PulseNet works and the impact it has made over 30 years: https://buff.ly/PzUGX3g

June 7, 2026, is ! This year’s theme is “From burden to solutions- safe food everywhere”. Read our feature article in t...
06/07/2026

June 7, 2026, is ! This year’s theme is “From burden to solutions- safe food everywhere”.

Read our feature article in the spring edition of Lab Matters Magazine to learn how public health laboratories play an increasingly critical role in protecting food safety and help detect foodborne threats to US consumers and stop outbreaks before they start. Quality, Safety, Traceability: Protecting the Food Supply for US Consumers: https://buff.ly/yf4cMYY

More information about World Food Safety Day and how you participate can be found here:
WHO- https://buff.ly/UOfKJUw
FAO- https://buff.ly/DZeQhci
FDA- https://buff.ly/Hpe7Af3

06/05/2026

In recognition of (June 7), join NACCHO, Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL), and National Environmental Health Association for a webinar featuring the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Megin Nichols to explore key updates to FoodNet and the new Bacteria, Enterics, Ameba, and Mycotics (BEAM) platform, both central to modernizing foodborne disease data systems. Tomorrow, learn how these changes will improve outbreak detection, strengthen decision-making, and enhance public health response. Register today: https://neha.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_WOzKXnr7RLyfiWBTUA02JA #/registration

ICYMI: Six African nations—with funding from the Global Fund and support from APHL and in-country Ministries of Health—r...
06/04/2026

ICYMI: Six African nations—with funding from the Global Fund and support from APHL and in-country Ministries of Health—recently completed a wastewater-based surveillance (WWBS) pilot program. While WWBS has existed for decades—most notably for polio surveillance and most recently for COVID-19—it’s proving to have broader applications, providing near real-time, actionable data to inform public health responses.

But continued funding will be important.

“In an era of declining global health funding, surveillance systems are often among the first to be deprioritized, despite their critical role in prevention,” said APHL’s Noah Hull, PhD, senior manager, Global Health. “Continued donor investment will be essential to maintain and expand these systems. In a connected world, risks do not remain isolated—we cannot keep our side of the boat afloat if the other side is taking on water. Global health is public health.”

Read more about the program and the impacts it has had in our latest Lab Culture News article:https://buff.ly/Xikiv8L

Seventy-five years ago, post-war industrialization left cities shrouded in smog. Synthetic chemicals were making their w...
06/03/2026

Seventy-five years ago, post-war industrialization left cities shrouded in smog. Synthetic chemicals were making their way into household cleaning products. Manufacturing waste and human sewage often ended up in rivers. The need for government regulation and environmental testing was fast becoming apparent. How did the country respond and what role did environmental testing play in creating a cleaner, healthier America? A 2026 Annual Conference session focusing on the history of environmental testing delved into all this and more.

Our latest Lab Culture News article has the details: https://buff.ly/aY35qdl

16 public health laboratorians from around the US recently gathered at the State Hygienic Laboratory at the University o...
06/02/2026

16 public health laboratorians from around the US recently gathered at the State Hygienic Laboratory at the University of Iowa for an APHL workshop, learning clinical molecular testing methods for the disease. As Legionnaires' disease continues to rise, expanding the capability of public health laboratories to diagnose and respond to outbreaks is more critical than ever.

Henrietta Lacks, a young Black woman in Baltimore, died from cervical cancer in 1951. Prior to her death—and without her...
06/01/2026

Henrietta Lacks, a young Black woman in Baltimore, died from cervical cancer in 1951. Prior to her death—and without her knowledge or consent—doctors removed cells from her cancerous tumor. These cells, dubbed HeLa cells, were unique in that they could divide and replenish at astonishing rates, launching unprecedented advances in cell research.

But what questions do these cells raise about medical ethics? And how would Henrietta feel about the contributions they’ve made to scientific advancements?

“She helped in life and even in death, and she would want to see science advance,” Veronica Robinson, Henrietta’s great granddaughter said at the 2026 APHL Annual Conference. “Sometimes bad things happen to good people so that great things can happen to the world.”

Read more about the Lacks Family and their perspectives on HeLa cells turning 75 in our current Lab Culture News article: https://buff.ly/YwpuJDE

Uganda, with support from APHL, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Ministry of Health Uganda and others, rec...
05/29/2026

Uganda, with support from APHL, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Ministry of Health Uganda and others, recently launched three new tools to help modernize its laboratory systems.

Those tools include an app that precisely tracks the movement of specimen samples, an enhanced laboratory data repository where data is validated, standardized and then stored and a central dashboard that allows clinicians, laboratory professionals and others to visualize—in near real time—things like geographic distribution of cases and positivity rates.

Read our latest Lab Culture News article for more details on the modernization and how it will improve laboratory science in Uganda: https://buff.ly/mHjMp6B

ICYMI: Collecting data is one thing. But how do you put it to good use? That’s the question posed by APHL trainers at a ...
05/29/2026

ICYMI: Collecting data is one thing. But how do you put it to good use? That’s the question posed by APHL trainers at a recent workshop to members of the Instituto de Salud Publica (ISP) in Santiago, Chile. The trainers conducted workshops on phylogenetics, data usability and determining LIMS needs.

Our latest Lab Culture News article has all the details: https://buff.ly/3RO9I8g

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