Introduction to the National Public Health Laboratory

The National Public Health Laboratory (NPHL) employs its medical and scientific expertise to perform laboratory analysis for surveillance and outbreak investigation of communicable diseases. As part of its work, NPHL tracks changes in the strains and genotypes of existing pathogens. NPHL develops laboratory tests to check for biological agents which have the potential to cause pandemics or become a biothreat. NPHL conducts research and training in public health microbiology, and collaborates with clinical laboratories and research institutions to enable a broad-based and coordinated response to communicable disease threats.

The laboratory is accredited to the ISO15189 standard under the Singapore Accreditation Council – Singapore Laboratory Accreditation Scheme.

The facilities include a High Containment Laboratory (biosafety level 3, BSL-3) which undergoes yearly certification and inspection by regulatory authorities.

The NPHL was established by the Ministry of Health in January 2007. The first interim BSL-2 laboratory was set up in the Communicable Diseases Centre 2 on Tan Tock Seng Hospital campus in April 2009. A second interim BSL-2 laboratory was set up in the then School of Nursing located at Singapore General Hospital. The latter then relocated to a purpose-built interim BSL-2 laboratory in Synapse, Biopolis in May 2014. Today, NPHL and its suite of laboratories are located at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases.

Overseas Partnerships

NPHL is a member of several global networks such as:

• World Health Organization (WHO) Global Influenza and Surveillance Response Network;

• WHO Western Pacific Region (WPRO) Measles and Rubella Reference Laboratory Network;

• Regional Public Health Laboratories Network;

• ASEAN Cluster 3 Laboratories;

• Asia Pacific Pathogen Genomic Network; and

• European Virus Archive.

NPHL’s experts are serving or have served as technical advisors and experts to WHO and other organisations, and contributed to various global guidelines.

Other examples of bilateral engagements with overseas public health laboratories include the Robert Koch Institute in Germany, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the Public Health Laboratory Services Branch in Hong Kong, the Centre for Infectious Diseases and Microbiology - Public Health in Sydney, Australia, the Centre for Pathogen Genomics at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity in Melbourne, Australia, the US Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (US CDC), the UK Health Security Agency, and the National Institute of Infectious Diseases in Japan.