The Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene Scientific Seminar presents "A Partnership to Strengthen the Public Health Laboratory Network in Botswana."

In Botswana, where an estimated 17 percent of the country's 1.8 million people are infected with HIV, inadequate laboratory systems represented a major barrier to mounting a successful HIV control program.

Since 2001, Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene Research Epidemiologist John Pfister has been working periodically as an Association of Public Health Laboratories consultant to assist the Centers for Disease Control and the Botswana Ministry of Health strengthen the nation's public health laboratory network.

Pfister will describe the challenges, accomplishments and ongoing activities of this international partnership.