In this episode of “Answers From the Lab,” host Bobbi Pritt, M.D., chair of the Division of Clinical Microbiology at Mayo Clinic, is joined by William Morice II, M.D., Ph.D., CEO and president of Mayo Clinic Laboratories. They discuss why measles remains a virus of concern, how avian flu continues to spread, and new developments in the federal regulation of laboratory-developed tests.

Their discussion includes:

• How a person infected with measles recently traveled through a U.S. airport, and the severity of the measles virus.
• The continued deadly spread of avian flu among wild birds, domestic poultry, and cattle, and the infection of a third human.
• Avian flu vaccine development and the importance of emergency preparedness.
• The American Clinical Laboratory Association’s (ACLA) lawsuit against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regarding the agency’s final rule to treat laboratory-developed tests as medical devices.