Lyme disease presents an ever-increasing burden to the public and the public health system, with an estimated 476,000 cases per year nationwide (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). In addition, many patients continue to suffer pain, fatigue, and brain fog long after being treated for their initial infection.

Read the New York State Department of Health Press Release.

Read the New York State Department of Health Press Release

The Bloodborne Viruses Laboratory provides pediatric HIV testing to diagnose or exclude HIV infection in infants who are born to people living with HIV.  We are making changes to the Pediatric HIV Testing Service to enhance our ability to detect small amounts of HIV RNA in pediatric samples and improve the efficiency and security of requesting tests and obtaining results.

Wadsworth Center scientists Dr. Kimberlee Musser, Dr. Marie Claire Rowlinson, and Tanya Halse were among the featured highlights from the National Conference on Laboratory Aspects of Tuberculosis hosted by the Association of Public Health Laboratories in the latest edition of its quarterly magazine, Lab Matters.

We are excited to announce the New York State Newborn Screening Program was recently awarded a contract from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) to provisionally add congenital Cytomegalovirus (cCMV) to our screening panel.  All babies will be tested for this infection.  Parents will be able to opt-out of the cCMV screen.  This testing will start during summer of 2023 and end in summer 2024 and more information about it can be found here.

Wadsworth Center’s Tanya Halse was the 2022 recipient of the Ed Desmond Award from the National Tuberculosis Controllers Association (NTCA).  This award honors exemplary service, dedication, or leadership to a tuberculosis (TB) laboratory professional and it’s easy to see why Tanya was nominated by Dr. Margaret Oxtoby and colleagues in the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) Bureau of TB Control.

Did you know that you only need a few drops of dried blood from a pricked finger to test for COVID-19 antibodies? Indeed, not only does a drop of blood contain a multitude of different antibodies to viruses and other microbes, but Wadsworth Center scientists are able to measure an array of different types of antibodies and estimate how well they are able to fight off an infection.  Such technologies represent the interaction of clinical testing and research investigation that occur at the Center every day of the week.

Read how Wadsworth Center scientists adapted the tools they already had to increase COVID surveillance capacity.

Wadsworth Center is committed to the continuing education of the next generation of public health laboratorians. In partnership with the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Wadsworth Center has offered full-time, working fellowships to graduate and post-graduate scientists for more than 25 years.

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.