TB Notes Newsletter
No. 3, 2010
2010 EIS Conference
CDC’s 59th annual Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) Conference was held in Atlanta April 19–23, 2010. EIS is a postgraduate program of service and training for health professionals interested in applied epidemiology. EIS is modeled after a traditional medical residency program where much of the education occurs through on-the-job learning. EIS officers also serve as one of CDC’s primary resources for responding to urgent public health problems.
Since the EIS program began in 1951, over 3,000 EIS officers have passed through the program, with about 75% remaining in public health for their careers. Currently, about 160 EIS officers are serving their 2-year assignments throughout CDC, in state and local health departments, and at the Indian Health Service and other federal health agencies, with six in CDC’s Division of Tuberculosis Elimination (DTBE).
Each April, the EIS conference provides the opportunity for current EIS officers to deliver scientific presentations about their work to fellow EIS officers, EIS alumni, CDC staff, and the broader public health community. In addition, the conference serves as “match week” for the approximately 80 members of the incoming EIS class. Once again this year, DTBE was happy to match all three of its available EIS positions.
Current/Recent EIS Officers’ Talks
Bisrat Abraham, MD, MPH, presented “Evaluation of Tuberculosis Surveillance — Republic of the Marshall Islands, 2004–2008,” at the poster session of the 2010 EIS Conference.
Sean Cavanaugh, MD, presented “Extensive Tuberculosis Outbreak Associated with an Assisted Living Facility for Adults with Mental Illness — Florida, 2008–2009,” as part of the opening session of the conference.
Ellie Click, MD, PhD, had two presentations: “Relationship between Mycobacterium tuberculosis Lineage and Extrapulmonary Tuberculosis — United States, 2004–2008” and “Evaluation of Integration of TB/HIV Surveillance into Tuberculosis Treatment for Children — Ethiopia, 2007–2009.”
Krista Powell, MD, MPH, presented “On-Site Case-Finding During a Tuberculosis Outbreak in a Homeless Shelter — 2008–2009,” as part of the TB session at the conference.
Philip Ricks, PhD, MPH, presented “Genotypic Clustering of Tuberculosis Cases among the Foreign-born — United States, 2004–2008,” at the TB session.
Matt Willis, MD, MPH, presented “Increase in HIV-associated Tuberculosis in the Context of Widespread Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis — Kazakhstan, 2003–2008,” as part of the HIV session of the conference.
Following the completion of their EIS training, Krista joined the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Outbreak Investigations Branch (SEOIB) and Sean joined the International Research and Programs Branch (IRPB) as staff members.
Incoming EIS Officers
In August 2010, after completing the traditional 1-month course that begins EIS, these three new officers joined DTBE:
Brian Baker, MD, is the new EIS Officer for SEOIB. Brian is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine. He extended medical school to work at the Institute for OneWorld Health, helping plan a control program for visceral leishmaniasis in India. He also spent 6 months living in Tanzania, working for the Axios Foundation on HIV prevention efforts. He most recently lived in New York City, where he completed his emergency medicine training at New York University and Bellevue Hospitals. Brian moved to Atlanta with his wife, Mikaela, who will be a faculty member at Emory in the Department of Emergency Medicine.
Lindsay Kim, MD, MPH, is one of the new EIS officers in IRPB. Tar Heel born and bred, Lindsay developed her love of college basketball during her childhood in Atlanta and at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It was at UNC where she fortuitously landed in public health. After receiving her MD from Emory University and her MPH in epidemiology and biostatistics from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Lindsay left her Southern roots for the cold winters of Boston, where she completed her internal medicine – primary care residency at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Lindsay had the opportunity to provide health care for people living with HIV/AIDS in Zwedru, Liberia, and in Kampala, Uganda, witnessing firsthand the devastation that HIV has wrought on the African continent. In her free time, Lindsay enjoys trying new ethnic restaurants, drinking strong coffee, traveling internationally, and rapelling down cliffs and waterfalls around the world.
Gloria Oramasionwu, MD, MPH, is the other new EIS officer in IRPB. Gloria is Nigerian by heritage and was raised in Winnipeg, Canada. She has always enjoyed traveling and working with children. Her love of caring for children motivated her to attend medical school at Baylor College of Medicine, where she developed an interest in infectious disease and public health. During her Boston-based pediatric residency, she built on her international experiences in medical school and traveled to Nigeria to work in a government hospital, where she looked more closely at the management of malaria and non-localizing fever. After obtaining her MPH at Johns Hopkins, she completed a pediatric infectious disease fellowship back at Baylor. In addition to traveling, Gloria enjoys reading, singing, and interior design.
—Reported by Eric Pevzner and Maryam Haddad
Div of TB Elimination
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