The UI Hygienic Laboratory
reached a milestone this past spring: it hit the
century mark.
Since April 1904, the Hygienic Laboratory has been
the state’s environmental and public health
laboratory. Its initial purpose was to identify and
study the development of diphtheria, rabies, tuberculosis
(TB), and typhoid fever, diseases that were dangerously
prevalent in Iowa and the rest of the nation at the
beginning of the 20th century.
In the past few years, the lab has studied several
new, potentially dangerous diseases like hantavirus,
SARS, West Nile virus, and monkey-pox virus.
Additionally, the lab plays an important role in
combating bioterrorism and is one of the laboratories
used to test suspected agents submitted by hospitals
or other laboratories.
Lab director Mary Gilchrist says the future role
of the Hygienic Laboratory is one that is continuously
adapting to established and emerging public and environmental
health threats. The lab currently employs 235 people,
including 189 full-time,
14 part-time, and 22 temporary employees, as well
as 10 student workers.
“Knowledge is what we have now that was not
available in the centuries that preceded the 20th
century,” Gilchrist says. “Let us be
influenced by that knowledge.”
For more information, see www.uhl.uiowa.edu.
by David Pedersen
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