TB Notes Newsletter
No. 2, 2011
2011 EIS Conference
CDC’s 60th annual Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) Conference was held April 11–15, 2011, in Atlanta. EIS is a postgraduate on-the-job program of service and training in applied epidemiology. EIS has trained over 3,000 officers since 1951, and many EIS alumni attended 60th anniversary commemorative events over the April 9–10 weekend. EIS officers have historically served as CDC’s primary resource for responding to urgent public health problems. Currently, about 160 EIS officers are serving in 2-year assignments throughout CDC, in state and local health departments, and other federal health agencies.
The April EIS conference functions both as a forum for current EIS officers to deliver scientific presentations about their work and as “match week” for incoming EIS officers. This year, DTBE successfully matched with three of the 79 members of the incoming class.
Incoming EIS Officers (Class of 2011)
Sara Auld, MD will be one of the new EIS officers in the International Research and Programs Branch (IRPB). Sara completed her undergraduate studies at Stanford University and medical school at Columbia University in New York. She became interested in global health when she spent a year during medical school doing HIV research in Durban, South Africa. She has also worked in community health programs and hospitals in the Dominican Republic, Malawi, and Uganda. She finished her internal medicine residency at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston in 2010 and stayed on there as a hospitalist. Since completing residency, Sara has also been working with a colleague to create a Global Health Service Corps that would support health systems strengthening and medical education in developing countries.
Terrence (Terry) Lo, DrPH, MPH will be the other new EIS officer in IRPB. Terry completed his BS at UC San Diego, MPH at Emory University, and his DrPH at UC Berkeley. He first became interested in international public health and epidemiology when he accidentally wandered into a medical entomology class 13 years ago. Since then he's worked as an epidemiologist for California's STD Control Branch as well as various public health projects abroad in east and west Africa and south Asia. Most recently he completed his dissertation work on a telemedicine and family planning project in rural Uttar Pradesh, India. In his free time, Terry enjoys being outdoors and being on things with two wheels, and counts traveling and photography as hobbies.
Robert Luo, MD, MPH will be the new EIS officer for the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Outbreak Investigations Branch (SEOIB). Robert received his BA from Harvard University and MD and MPH from Johns Hopkins. He is currently finishing his residency in anatomic and clinical pathology at Stanford University and is interested in improving diagnostic methods and laboratory-based surveillance for TB. He has worked on TB projects in a number of settings, most recently in California, North Korea, and Vietnam. Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, Robert enjoys trail running and singing karaoke, though fortunately not at the same time!
DTBE Honors at the EIS Conference
Matthew Willis, MD, second-year EIS officer, won the J. Virgil Peavy Memorial with his presentation, "Seasonality of Tuberculosis — United States, 1993–2008.” The Peavy Award recognizes the effective and innovative application of statistics and epidemiologic methods to a study or investigation.
A presentation by Brian Baker, MD, first-year EIS officer, entitled “Healthcare-Associated Outbreak of Tuberculosis — Puerto Rico, 2010,” was nominated for the Mitch Singal Excellence in Occupational and Environmental Health Award.
First-year EIS officers Lindsay Kim, MD, MPH and Gloria Oramasionwu, MD, MPH also delivered interesting and well-received presentations based on their analyses from clinics serving people living with HIV/AIDS in Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam during 2006–2008. Dr. Kim presented on symptom-based screening for TB, and Dr. Oramasionsu presented on using stool culture as a potential new approach to detect pulmonary TB.
An alumnus of the EIS class of 2006, staff epidemiologist Adam J. Langer, DVM, MPH won the James H. Steele Veterinary Public Health Award for contributions over the past decade in the field of veterinary public health, not only as a CDC employee but also through his strong professional affiliation and additional volunteer work in veterinary medicine.
Outgoing EIS Officers (Class of 2009)
Bisrat Abraham, MD, MPH, will start a fellowship in infectious diseases at Cornell University after completing EIS in June. Matthew Willis, MD, MPH, will be moving back to California to serve as a clinician and educator in the public health system. Eleanor S. Click, MD, PhD, will stay on with DTBE as a medical epidemiologist with IRPB and the Laboratory Branch.
We in DTBE thank our outgoing EIS officers for their hard work and contributions during their time with us, and look forward to welcoming our new EIS officers this summer!
—Reported by Maryam Haddad, MSN, MPH
Div of TB Elimination
Contact Us:
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Division of Tuberculosis Elimination (DTBE)
1600 Clifton Rd., NE
MS E10
Atlanta, GA 30333 - 800-CDC-INFO
(800-232-4636)
TTY: (888) 232-6348 - New Hours of Operation
8am-8pm ET/Monday-Friday
Closed Holidays - cdcinfo@cdc.gov
