* Correspondence: hap5@cdc.gov 3 Centers for Disease Control and Response, 1600 Clifton Rd., Atlanta, USA Full list of author information is available at the end of the article The World Health Organization (WHO) emphasized the role of public health laboratories in national surveillance systems through a resolution in 2008 which called for the organization of national public health laboratory networks that would link national laboratories with subregional, regional and international laboratories [4, 5] . Thus a public health laboratory network is a collection of laboratories that use standard operating procedures, carry out quality assessments, and report information for public health action in a systematic manner [4] .