Dallas County officials are moving forward on a new state-of-the-art laboratory that they say will help the health department be more prepared for the next health emergency.
On Wednesday morning, Dallas County Health and Human Services, alongside several Dallas County commissioners, broke ground on a new 70,000-square-foot laboratory and research facility. The state-of-the-art lab will be located on 1.6 acres off Mockingbird Lane on the north end of Dallas' Southwestern medical district.
This will be the main location for the Dallas County Health and Human Services Public Health Laboratory, which is in charge of the testing, tracking and studying of all things infectious and contagious.
While construction is underway, the groundbreaking this week was more ceremonial to celebrate a project that officials said is a long time coming.
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“COVID showed how important laboratory testing is for addressing a public health crisis,” said Philip Huang, Director of Health and Human Services for Dallas County. “We need to have testing capability to know who had the infection and where it was going and how widely it was being spread. And it is so important to just be able to control and contain any of some of these public health threats. Laboratories are just a core activity for public health response.”
As the Texas population increases so does the demand for testing capabilities. The facility will focus on surveillance and diagnostic testing for communicable diseases such as HIV, Hepatitis C, and TB, as well as mosquito-borne illnesses (West Nile Virus). It will also have the capacity to test for Zika, Ebola, COVID-19, and Influenza, among others.
"Let's face it, during the last 12 years we have seen West Nile virus, Zika virus, Ebola, COVID-19, and Influenza in different forms and shapes,” said Dr. Elba Garcia, Dallas County Commissioner for District 4. “I think that a county that is ready and prepared not only with data collection but with testing – which was one of the biggest challenges during COVID – really put us in the forefront.”
This lab will also be able to handle growing testing needs for the state's opioid crisis and will be considered a bio-safety level 3 facility.
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These are demands Dr. Huang said the existing lab was able to handle but the facilities were long outdated.
"The current lab is literally in the basement of our building over on Stemmons. It's like a dungeon down there. And it’s really cramped, I know the staff is really just wanting to get a window so they cannot be in the dungeon,” he said. “But this is a huge milestone for us to be able to really accomplish all of the public health needs for our community."
The total cost of the new facility is $52 million, much of it paid for through federal money from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 that was distributed by the Biden administration for pandemic recovery.
The new biolab is expected to be completed by the end of 2025.
