State Laboratory Institute

A structural deficit in the state budget, without new revenues, requires cutting things that make our communities healthier. Last Sunday the Boston Globe ran the story, "State's vaccine supply rationed."

   Facing unprecedented demand for three childhood vaccines, Massachusetts health authorities have begun rationing the state's reserve, fueling fear among some pediatricians that a dangerous gap in coverage might result.
   The state quietly issued a memo to doctors late last year telling them to limit their use of certain state-supplied shots for meningitis, diphtheria, and chickenpox, primarily in older children.

The outbreak, which killed three men and caused at least one miscarriage, would not have been identified without a great public structure that protects us from all sorts of nasty diseases: The Bureau of Laboratory Sciences and the Bureau of Communicable Disease Control under our state Department of Public Health. On February 17th, the Worcester Telegram and Gazette featured a fantastic article titled, "CSI: Listeria, State health lab used DNA 'fingerprints' to find listeria source." Here is an exerpt: 

     The recent listeria outbreak linked to three deaths and one miscarriage could have gone on indefinitely without the “detectives” at the state’s public health laboratory, who tracked down, fingerprinted, identified and photographed the dangerous strain of bacteria, and then posted the prints in a national computer database to safeguard others.
     The scientific investigations took place at the eight-story State Laboratory Institute in Jamaica Plain. Built more than a century ago, the lab is the second oldest public health lab in the country. Its mission includes public health testing, conducting rapid investigations of infectious and environmental disease outbreaks, sharing laboratory data to diagnose and prevent disease, and responding 24-7 to biological or chemical terrorism threats or incidents.