The laboratory's role in prevention and control of infectious diseases

The laboratory is essential for optimal prevention and control of infectious diseases. Its major functions are identification and characterization of infectious agents and development of serological tests. Isolation of the agent and characterization of the immune response can lead to development of some of the most effective prevention tools--vaccines. After prevention/control programs are under way, confirmation of diagnosis remains important. As programs near the state of disease elimination or eradication, the laboratory role is critical in ensuring accurate diagnosis of suspicious illness. In the current global effort to eradicate poliomyelitis, the laboratory has a leading role in identifying poliovirus isolates as being wild or vaccine-like and in determining the relationships among cases of polio. Techniques are being developed that will enable the identification of wild poliovirus in the presence of large quantities of polio vaccine viruses, which will be necessary to document the eradication of polio.