Laboratory surge capacity and pandemic influenza.
In this issue, Crawford et al. describe their experiences running a clinical diagnostic laboratory during the first 3 weeks of the influenza A pandemic (H1N1) 2009 outbreak (1). During the early weeks of the outbreak, their laboratory, which serves 15 hospitals and affiliated physician practices in the greater New York City metropolitan area, experienced an approximately 8x increase in respiratory virus testing, reaching a maximum of about 900 samples processed in 1 day.
Meltzer
Martin I
MI
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Rd NE, Mailstop D59, Atlanta, GA 30333, USA. mmeltzer@cdc.gov
McNeill
K Mills
KM
Miller
Joseph D
JD
D002984:Clinical Laboratory Information Systems; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D006801:Humans; D053118:Influenza A Virus, H1N1 Subtype; D007251:Influenza, Human / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D007753:Laboratories / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D007755:Laboratories, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D055872:Surge Capacity / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000078329:Workforce