Medical Parasitology - Frequently Asked Questions

Specimens for parasite examination must be submitted by a medical provider. Members of the public cannot submit specimens to the Laboratory. If you are a patient, please discuss your concerns with your doctor. Your doctor will then order and submit the appropriate tests for you, as needed.
To submit specimens, medical providers must first have a submitter ID account with the Laboratory. Submission form G-2B or G-2A is required for each specimen. Please ensure the submission form is the most recent version. To obtain submission forms, contact the Laboratory Reporting Group at 1-888-963-7111 ext. 7578 or fax 512-776-7533, or email LabInfo@dshs.texas.gov. 

Details on how to submit specimens to the Laboratory can be found at Texas Department of State Health Services - Guidelines for Specimen Collection and Submission.

Questions about appropriate specimen handling may be directed to the Parasitology Team by calling 512-776-7560 or emailing Medical.Parasitology@dshs.texas.gov.

Additional guidelines on specimen shipping and mailing are found on DSHS Lab’s webpages at Texas Department of State Health Services, Guidelines for Specimen Shipping and Mailing.

The DSHS Laboratory cannot make physician referrals or recommend courses of care for patients. Please visit your general practitioner for assistance.

Our laboratory does not routinely test veterinary specimens. We do, however, test animal specimens that are implicated in human disease investigations (e.g., raccoon feces in potential Baylisascaris cases). For the submission of ticks or triatomine (kissing) bugs, please contact DSHS Zoonosis Control by emailing the.vet@dshs.texas.gov.

More information on submitting triatomine bugs for Chagas disease testing is available at Triatomine Testing (state.tx.us).

Please submit specimens to the DSHS Laboratory to be routed to CDC. Do not ship directly to CDC unless you have received pre-approval from CDC. You may call the Parasitology Team at 512-776-7560 or email Medical.Parasitology@dshs.texas.gov for handling instructions before shipping.

There are rare, urgent cases where timing is so crucial that a specimen should be sent directly to CDC; however, the state public health laboratory (DSHS) must always be notified in such cases. Doing so ensures that the result report can be provided to the original submitter as soon as possible. The CDC no longer issues reports directly to submitters; only to state public health laboratories. These reports will then be forwarded to the appropriate submitter upon receipt.

A Texas Notifiable Conditions list is available at Notifiable Conditions | Texas DSHS. All confirmed and suspected cases of notifiable conditions must be reported to DSHS within the required reporting timeframe. Not all notifiable conditions require an isolate be submitted to the DSHS Laboratory for testing, but it is recommended.

Disease reports must be submitted to local or regional DSHS epidemiologists in DSHS’ Infectious Diseases Control Unit (IDCU), not the Laboratory.

Scan QR Code for 2024 Texas Notifiable Conditions List 

No. Please do not submit reports to the Laboratory. The disease reporting contact (epidemiologist) of the patient’s county of residence must be notified instead.

Call, fax, or mail a completed Infectious Disease Report Form (EPI-1 or EPI-2) to the health department contact listed for that county. Report forms that are faxed or emailed to the Laboratory may not be forwarded to the correct party. 

If your facility is set up for Electronic Lab Reporting (ELR) with DSHS, reports will be automatically submitted to NEDSS and DSHS epidemiologists. Faxing or mailing report forms is not required.

Facilities that have ELR are still required to call 1-800-705-8868 to notify DSHS epidemiologists of immediately reportable conditions.

• Notifiable Conditions Reporting Epidemiology contacts by county available online here: http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/idcu/investigation/conditions/contacts/ 
• EPI-1 and EPI-2 Reporting Forms available online here: https://www.dshs.texas.gov/notifiable-conditions/reporting-forms 
• Information about signing up for ELR is available here. FAQs about electronic reporting are available here. 

No. Electronic National Electronic Diseases Surveillance System (NEDSS) reports are autogenerated, notifying DSHS epidemiologists of positive results for infectious diseases.

No. Do not send reports of confirmed or suspected cases to the Laboratory. Reports of notifiable conditions or other illnesses that may be of public health significance must be sent to local or regional health departments in the county of the patient’s residence.
Contact information for local health entities across Texas may be found at IDPS | Notifiable Conditions (texas.gov).

Reporters of confirmed cases of cyclosporiasis, cryptosporidiosis, and Chagas disease, are highly encouraged to submit specimens to DSHS Laboratory for disease surveillance purposes. Additional submission guidance for Cyclospora and Crypto is available here.

It is the responsibility of providers to notify their local or regional health departments of notifiable conditions and to submit specimens to the DSHS Laboratory. Reporting forms that are faxed or emailed to the Laboratory may not be forwarded to the correct party.