Andrew Lansley, Secretary of State for Health, visited the Health Protection Agency's (HPA) regional laboratory in his South Cambridgeshire constituency on Friday 14th January, to see how staff are responding to the increase in cases of seasonal influenza, which includes H1N1 (2009) 'swine' flu.

The HPA's laboratory's staff are at the front line of this year's seasonal 'flu monitoring, undertaking all the testing for cases across the East of England. Staff have been able to respond to the 700% rise in workload, up to over 2000 tests per month, since the autumn of last year.

Dr Tim Wreghitt from the HPA said: "The HPA's staff have been working hard every day throughout the Christmas and New Year holiday period to process the tests for flu. It helps us to prevent, manage and treat flu most effectively throughout the season and gain a greater understanding of the types of flu that are circulating."

Mr Lansley was also shown the HPA's state-of-the-art diagnostic equipment installed last year. 'Kiestra' saves time for the laboratory's skilled scientific staff, allowing them to produce useful results from swabs and other samples more quickly. For example, the average time to get an MRSA screening result has fallen by 20%. The East of England is the HPA's first regional laboratory to install this new device.

Dr Tim Wreghitt added: "When a person is tested for an infection, for example MRSA, if the test comes back positive the patient can get treated more quickly with the most appropriate medicine. Kiestra is a fantastic piece of equipment and the whole process is now much faster and more efficient."

Source:
Health Protection Agency