CAPHLD
Whitepaper

2. Personnel standards: Section 1079 (CCR) specifies that tests performed in the official public health laboratory must be performed by certified public health microbiologists. In addition, Section 1302 (CCR) requires that the director of the public health laboratory must hold a certificate as a public health microbiologist and have four or more years of experience in public health laboratory work. The statutory authority for these regulations is Section 1002 (H&SC) which requires public health laboratories to use equipment and hire technical personnel approved by the State Department of Health. While licensed clinical laboratories and public health laboratories perform many of the same procedures, rely on many of the same scientific principles, and use similar equipment, there are significant differences in the length and content of training required at the bench level. It is possible for individuals to be both licensed as a Clinical Laboratory Technologist and certified as a Public Health Microbiologist; however, such dual qualifications are not normally found or required.

3. Section 1276 (CCR) specifies services that must be provided by a public health laboratory and specimens which must be sent to a public health laboratory. The official public health laboratory must be able to support the various programs of its local health department. This requires that the public health laboratory must be prepared to provide large scale testing of enteric specimens during food poisoning outbreaks, or recreational water samples following a sewage spill. It also means providing routine laboratory support for the local health department in the detection, control, and prevention of communicable diseases. For example, public health laboratories play a prominent role in curtailing the spread of sexually transmitted diseases (including the AIDS virus) and tuberculosis.