The Naval Health Research Center in San Diego was designated an H1N1 confirmatory lab by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on May 7.
"CDC has forwarded the necessary materials to enable confirmatory testing of H1N1 specimens. NHRC has provided evidence back to CDC that these tests are working and sensitive as required," said Dr. Karl Van Orden, NHRC scientific director.
This can allow more effective treatment of severe cases and enable more efficient tracking of the spread of cases alone and in combination with other pathogens.
NHRC has been conducting advanced diagnostic testing of H1N1 for local military clinics and providing samples
"probable" for H1N1 to CDC for confirmation since the first cases were discovered in the United States. Van Orden said the lab's track record for identifying probable cases has been exemplary during this outbreak.
With the addition of the border clinics and the naval hospital's clinics, the center has grown from being a critical Department of Defense Global Emerging Infections Surveillance (DOD-GEIS) Respiratory Disease Laboratory asset into a key respiratory disease surveillance capability for the entire southwest region.
"Given the fact that San Diego is a major fleet concentration area, and located on an international border, this transformation was a natural evolution," Van Orden said.
"The respiratory disease research laboratory, directed by Cmdr. Patrick Blair, is poised to work with CDC to examine the H1N1 virus over the weeks and months ahead for signs of mutation and for the emergence of other pathogens. NHRC is actively involved in vaccine clinical trial investigations, and works with several industrial partners on the evaluation and testing of rapid diagnostic capabilities."
Navy Medicine scientists at NHRC detected the first two suspected U.S. cases of H1N1 in April in an on-going surveillance program on the U.S.-Mexico border and at the Naval Medical Center and in military medical clinics in the San Diego area. This program has been conducted in collaboration with the CDC, and local and state public health officials.
NHRC collects and screens thousands of respiratory samples from around the world at military and civilian sites as the DOD-GEIS Respiratory Disease Laboratory hub, said Cmdr. Dennis Faix, assistant department head, NHRC Respiratory Diseases Research Department.
The NHRC Respiratory Disease Research Laboratory was established in the late 1990s to continuously monitor all Department of Defense (DOD) recruit training sites and the Coast Guard recruit training center for adenoviruses and other respiratory pathogens. In response to avian influenza (H5N1) concerns, the program was expanded in 2004 by DOD-GEIS to support greater pandemic surveillance.
NHRC augmented existing febrile respiratory illness surveillance programs in military recruit trainees and ship-board populations and expanded into military family member populations in San Diego. In a collaborative effort with the CDC, the laboratory developed a surveillance program on the Southern California-Mexico border.
NHRC regularly processes around 5,500 specimens a year, about two-thirds of which come in during the influenza season from October to February, Van Orden said.
"The laboratory conducts respiratory disease surveillance on 20 large-deck U.S. Navy ships in three fleets, and during military exercises such as Cobra Gold, in Thailand. NHRC is actively involved in vaccine clinical trial investigations, and works with several industrial partners on the evaluation and testing of rapid diagnostic capabilities."
Larry Coffey (NNS)
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