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An anthrax outbreak, a rabid animal, drug-resistant bacteria—These might sound like your worst
nightmares, but for the scientists and epidemiologists at the Department of Health, it's just another
day on the job.
"When you go through and see all of the nasty viruses, chemicals and stuff, it's nice to
know that we've got a place like this to help protect the public."
Six members of the House Health and Human Services policy and finance committees and
House staff toured the Minnesota Department of Health's world-class lab in St. Paul.
The group saw newborn screening up-close, water being tested for contaminants and learned
how unknown substances are cautiously analyzed.
"I hadn't seen the facilities that they have for sort of dealing with unknown substances
that might come in and that's a big concern these days when you don't know if there's
going to be some kind of bioterrorism incident, or different things can come up."
Liebling, who chairs the House Health and Human Services Policy Committee, says tours
like this strengthen relationships.
"Ultimately, Legislature sets the policy, so it's very important to have this kind of
flow of information back and forth that They know what our concerns are as legislators
and what our constituents concerns are and that we know what they are doing as professionals
and what their concerns are and what they need to do to keep Minnesotans safe."
The tour may even have the potential to shape public policy.
"It adds credibility and it also gives us an idea of capabilities. You have things come
up, something new and can we do that? Or, handle that, or how would we integrate that
into our programs? And if you know what the general capacities are, then it gives you
just an idea of what we can do. So policy-wise, I think in the future, we'll know, hey we
could do this here and then do we fund it? where does it fit into the group in the budget?"
An example of the Legislature implementing a policy change last year that the Department
of Health will be screening for is a non-invasive test to check for critical congenital heart
disease.
"These are the types of heart defects that require intervention within the first year
and so we are really talking about the ones that have a huge impact on families, certainly
on the child, and so it's just really important for us to be able to screen for it because
a lot of these are missed. They are either missed prenatally during the ultrasound, or
they're just missed at during the primary care checkup in the hospital, maybe they don't
have the murmur, maybe the kid looks really, really good at the moment and it's not until
later that they star to turn blue and they have problems, and if they are at home and
that happens, that is really hard."
Genetic Councilor Amy Gaviglio hopes that the Department of Health will begin screening
for the defect in January of 2014.
"It's another test to check for these things that we know we are missing and we know if
we catch them, we can for sure save lives."
Just one incident of the Legislature and Department of Health working together.