This is a companion article to the feature, “Public Health Policy Takes on Infectious Diseases.“ 

The American Society of Microbiology (ASM) is joining the offensive against ebola. Kimberly E. Walker, PhD, MT (ASCP), public affairs manager at ASM, says the society’s recent actions include a number of key contributions to the fight.

  • In September 2014, the ASM laboratory practices committee consulted with CDC personnel to draft interim laboratory guidelines for handling and testing specimens from cases or suspected cases of hemorrhagic fever virus (HFV). The guidelines emphasize that all laboratory testing must follow standard precautions, and outlines enhanced precautions labs might choose to adopt to ensure testing personnel safety and to provide medically necessary lab testing to suspected HFV patients.
  • In the same month, ASM sent a statement to members of congress regarding the response to the ebola outbreak in Western Africa, encouraging additional support for research and public health programs. The statement noted that there must be sustained funding to provide the public health infrastructure and rapid response capabilities needed to deal with future outbreaks of highly infectious diseases. While providing logistical and medical support in West Africa is an urgent step, ASM wrote, it will be vaccines and therapeutics that remove ebola as a global threat.
  • Also in September 2014, ASM sent a letter to Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia M. Burwell, recommending that attention also be focused on the science underlying the ebola epidemic, including the basic biology, molecular epidemiology, and genetics of the ebola virus, and specific impacts on those infected.
  • In October 2014, ASM sent out a notice to its clinical lab members providing a list of resources for following the most current news and guidelines related to the ebola virus outbreak.
  • In November 2014, ASM sent a letter to members of Congress supporting the administration’s $6.18 billion emergency funding request to combat the ebola virus outbreak.