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Attention Providers, Hospital Staff and Parents: See below for information regarding a new amendment to New York State (NYS) Public Health Law §2500-a and 2500-f, effective June 22, 2022 regarding testing for G6PD deficiency: G6PD Parent Fact Sheet G6PD Provider Fact Sheet 

Attention Newborn Screening Coordinators and Newborn Screening Designees: The Newborn Screening Coordinator Toolkit is a new resource from the Newborn Screening Program, which delivers a comprehensive review of the newborn screening process and details the responsibilities of Newborn Screening Coordinators and birth hospitals related to newborn screening. The toolkit includes user guides of newborn screening tools such as the Secure Remote Viewer (SRV), Case Demographics (iCMS), and HERDS, an explanation of the follow-up process, educational resources, and more!

See Governor Hochul's April 21, 2022 press release.

Tuberculosis­­­ - The Tortoise Would you be surprised to know that tuberculosis (TB) was the leading infectious disease killer in the world in 2019? Estimates of deaths attributed to TB were second only to COVID-19 in 2020 (roughly 1.5 million versus 1.8 million reported deaths, respectively). In the ongoing race to be the microbe responsible for the largest number of deaths across the planet, “hares” like HIV and SARS-CoV-2 explode onto the scene and appear to leave everyone else in the dust.

Wadsworth Center joins with the Association of Public Health Laboratories to celebrate Lab Week April 24-30, 2022. Follow the links to learn about the many ways public health laboratorians help to keep us safe every day - from environmental testing to infectious disease testing to newborn screening.

Please see New York State Department of Health Press Release More about COVID-19 Variant Data

A culmination of work in Lyme arthritis in patients and in animal models, the review highlights the paradigm that infectious agents may trigger immune dysregulation and autoimmunity, leading to persistent post-infectious sequelae.Lyme arthritis: linking infection, inflammation and autoimmunity.Lochhead RB, Strle K, Arvikar SL, Weis JJ, Steere AC. Nat Rev Rheumatol. 2021 Aug;17(8):449-461. doi: 10.1038/s41584-021-00648-5. Epub 2021 Jul 5. PMID: 34226730 Review.Cover used courtesy Springer Nature Limited.

Rachel Fay, Ph.D. candidate in Wadsworth Center’s Arbovirology Laboratory, under the mentorship of Dr. Alex Ciota, took first place in the University at Albany’s fourth annual Three Minute Thesis competition with her talk titled, “Increasing the resolution of vector-borne diseases and climate change”. The contest gives all graduate students across all fields at the University at Albany a chance to present their work.Listen to Rachel’s talk.

Dr. Nicholas Mantis, of Wadsworth Center's Division of Infectious Diseases, was awarded a five-year, $9 million contract by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to study human antibody responses to the Lyme disease pathogen, Borrelia burgdorferi.  

​Current antibiotics work by interfering with bacterial growth, which is a fine game plan… until it stops working. More and more, bacteria are finding ways around this approach, resulting in a huge antibiotic resistance problem. Dr. Jon Paczkowski may just have come up with a new defensive strategy and recently received a five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health to investigate.

As we’ve seen repeatedly during the pandemic, it isn’t always easy to get our hands on everything we need, hmmm, cue the toilet paper, especially new things. This reality translates to addressing patients who have COVID today. By using tools we already have in labs across the country, we can capitalize on the technology, instruments and the know how to use them by using them in new ways.

Dr. St. George is quoted in the feature article beginning on page 5 and our own Infectious Disease Fellow Nora Cleary is featured on pg 19. Nora has been selected for the Edith Hsiung Memorial prize for her abstract/presentation on Hep A whole genome sequencing.  This is one of the two top travel awards from the American Society for Microbiology for a student, fellow, or technologist, presenting their work at the annual, international Clinical Virology Symposium, to be held this year in West Palm Beach.

Find out how Wadsworth Center and its partners have been detecting and tracking down Legionella from culture, prior to commercial availability of media, to direct fluorescent antibody testing, PCR, pulse field gel electrophoresis and now whole genome sequencing of patient and environmental isolates.

Having spent a lot of time in our homes recently, most of us are probably contemplating a dream renovation. If that project requires several professionals - plumbers, electricians, carpenters, etc., we might have second thoughts.

Read on page 26 of Association of Public Health Laboratories' Fall/Winter Lab Matters Issue about Wadsworth Center's Collaboration with CDC's Biodefense Research and Development Laboratory.

SubPart 69-1 Newborn Screening for Phenylketonuria and Other Diseases  

Revisions to the New York State Clinical Laboratory Standards of Practice are now available, including: Current Standards General Systems Standards Effective May 5th, 2021 Specialty Requirements by Category with Microbiology and Pathology Standards of Practice, effective May 2021  Standard Revisions

In 2019, cases of a mysterious illness related to vaping, formally referred to as “e-cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury” (EVALI), were identified across the United States.  A significant number of cases affected young New Yorkers.  In association with NY Regional Poison Control Centers and medical facilities from around the state, Wadsworth Center’s Laboratory of Organic Analytical Chemistry analyzed vape fluid samples from suspected cases for cannabinoids, pesticides, synthetic cannabinoids, opioids, illicit drugs, an

SARS-CoV-2, like all viruses, is constantly creating new variants through mutation of its RNA genome. Most mutations are of little or no consequence. However, every once in a while, a new mutation can increase transmissibility, increase disease severity, cause the virus to escape the body’s immune response, or do any combination of these.

The World Health Organization estimates that almost 4,000 people lose their lives to TB and close to 28,000 people contract TB every day.  Currently, 13 million people in the United States live with latent (hidden) TB infection.