Kern County Public Health lab director Dr.
Lab assistant Randy Warkentin inside the current Kern County Public Health lab. ”+
Kern County Public Health lab director Dr.
Lab assistant Randy Warkentin inside the current Kern County Public Health lab.
Thereas a new room in the Kern County Public Health building known as the aEbola Room.a
Only certain employees have access to the room. The ceiling and floor of the room are completely sealed.
Itas clear the room is designed to keep anything that might find its way inside from getting out.
aIt allows us to be prepared for what is the unknown,a said Kern Public Health Director Matt Constantine.
The health department has recently constructed a new addition to its lab, with the ostensible goal of testing for the Ebola virus should an outbreak ever occur in the region.
aYou have to be prepared for the unusual event you’re hoping never happens, but you have to have the technology, the lab and the equipment to deal with it quickly if it should ever happen,a said Kern Public Health Lab Director Mike Janda.
The department received around $491,000 from the California Department of Public Health for the new lab through a grant in fiscal year 2016-17, shortly after the deadliest Ebola outbreak the world had ever seen occurred in west Africa in 2014.
aThere was concern about what California, and specifically about what Kern County would do if weare faced with a pathogen of a similar virulence that we saw in other places of the world,a Constantine said. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention within two months.
Once the CDC gives the all clear, operations in the lab can begin, and the lab can begin testing dangerous pathogens such as plague, brucellosis and rabies.
When not running tests on high-level contaminants, the department plans to use the lab on a daily basis for routine operations.
But should anything go wrong, the lab will be ready for action.
aIf we just look back at the last 10 years, weave had major, either national, statewide or worldwide outbreaks of West Nile, SARS, H1N1, flu, Ebola,a Janda said.
