The Trinidad Public Health Laboratory provides diagnostic and supportive services and the surveillance of communicable diseases in a prompt and efficient manner in order to improve the health status of the people of Trinidad and Tobago. As an important arm of the Ministry’s Public Health Service, the Trinidad Public Health Laboratory is responsible for the following functions:
- Providing diagnostic laboratory support for both the Community Health Services and the hospitals in such specialized disciplines as Virology, and for uncommon infectious diseases, for example, Tuberculosis and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Such support is invariably extended to the private health sector.
- Conducting national surveillance and other relevant epidemiological activities exclusively in the area of communicable diseases. These functions are undertaken by the National Surveillance Unit.
- Providing diagnostic laboratory services as an essential adjunct to national surveillance activities, particularly in the area of epidemic investigation.
- Conducting laboratory-based surveillance activities to enable, inter alia, the early detection of newly introduced disease causing organisms into the population.
- Providing laboratory backup support for the Public Health Inspectorate in the monitoring of food and water quality in Trinidad and Tobago. This area of responsibility includes the retail food establishment and non-commercial food samples such as the School Feeding Programme and public institutions.
- Providing laboratory and epidemiological support through the conduct of seroprevalence studies in the areas of Vaccine Preventable and Sexually Transmitted Diseases.
- Conducting research as may be relevant and appropriate for elucidating health problems in the area of communicable diseases.
Contact Information
16-18 Jamaica Boulevard
Federation Park
St. Clair
Telephone: 622-2877 or 622-5311
Fax: 622-0951
Sample Management Manual
Click below to view and download the Sample Management Manual.
