Retired
director William Hausler and current director Mary Gilchrist flank a proposed
$30 million replacement
State Hygienic Laboratory facility. The lab, which offers important services
which impact state and national
public health, currently is housed in space built as the Oakdale Tuberculosis
Hospital.
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By
Bob Hibbs If
bitten by a rabid dog somewhere in Iowa a century ago, a person might have
boarded a train with the dog’s head in a bag bound for the State Hygienic
Laboratory in downtown Iowa City. Time
is critically important in successfully treating the disease; each hour puts a
victim closer to being untreatable. Sending a sample to Iowa City for analysis
wasn’t an option since the local physician couldn’t offer treatment
provided only in Chicago – until it was offered in Iowa City beginning in
1909. In
every major public health concern today – from infectious and communicable
diseases like West Nile virus, aids or flu to water and air quality or infant
health – 235 people at this little-known facility now using the former
Oakdale Tuberculosis Hospital are front line offensive players. They
often provide important data to public health officials nationwide. They’re
planning and working for a new facility, but retired director William Hausler
is cautious since twice before new buildings have been planned for the lab
during its century of existence. The others never materialized. Current
quarters were built in seven stages dating back three-quarters of a century as
reinforced concrete boxes intended to house patients in small rooms – or
outdoors. Low ceilings make installation of large lab equipment nearly
impossible and horribly expensive. Air handling is an engineering nightmare. Samples
frequently must be carted back and forth along city-block-long halls as
they’re moved from receiving through testing, analysis and cleanup. A
proposed replacement actually is smaller than current space; but, it would be
far more efficient in keeping analysts at the lab bench, rather than at
superfluous tasks now necessary. A
1901 fire destroyed the University of Iowa’s College of Medicine building on
Pentacrest, resulting in a replacement catty-cornered across the
Jefferson-Dubuque streets intersection from the First Methodist Church in
central Iowa City. Later called the Zoology Building, it now serves as
biological sciences labs. Two
second-floor rooms in the northwest corner of that 1904 structure became home
to a creature of the state legislature made a permanent UI entity, first
within the College of Medicine, now as a separate service. For
a century, the lab has forged milestones in diagnostic techniques and public
health outreach. Its
directors from founder Henry Albert (1904-21) to Don Griswold (1921-27),
Albert Hardy (1927-30), Milford Barnes (1930-43), Irving Borts (1943-1964),
Hausler (1964-1995) and currently Mary Gilchrist reads like a who’s who of
the leadership of public health in Iowa and nationally. The
National Center for Disease Control calls regularly for data and counsel. The
UI lab’s uniqueness is its existence in an academic setting, free from
pressures most state labs experience as part of public health departments in
state government. Only the University of Wisconsin provides its lab a
comparable environment in Madison. Among
the most widely publicized work of the lab is water testing for
illness-causing bacteria and harmful chemicals like nitrates. It tests every
child born in Iowa for a litany of treatable disorders. Public beaches receive
its testing for health problems, as do air samples statewide. Its
detective work when people anywhere in Iowa get sick after eating at a
particular spot, or attending a specific event, is highly regarded as prompt,
shrewd and thorough. It often trains people afterwards to help prevent
reoccurrence. Likewise,
spotting and quickly reporting outbreaks of communicable diseases anywhere in
Iowa is an important function. The lab alerts physicians statewide to the
presence of threats to public health, thus aiding quicker diagnosis and thus
more effective treatment. Reducing
the scope of epidemics results in huge savings in treatment expense and lost
work days. “The
lab works mostly out of the public eye,” comments Hausler, a former
University Heights council member. “But, its goal of a healthy population
affects absolutely everyone.” Next
Saturday:
Iowa City’s state fair of 1860. Bob Hibbs collects local postcards and other historic ephemera and researches history related to them. |