Division of Bacterial Diseases (DBD) News Bulletin

Spring/Summer 2011

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Building 1: A Slice of CDC’s History

As many DBD staff prepare to move to Building 24 and see Building 1 come down, we look back at how Building 1 came to be...

The survival of CDC as an institution was not at all certain in the 1950s. In 1947, Emory University gave land on Clifton Road for a headquarters (for a token payment of $10), but construction did not begin for more than a decade. It was no accident that CDC was adjacent to Emory. Atlanta philanthropist Robert W. Woodruff and President Dwight D. Eisenhower had brokered a deal during the Eisenhower presidency to transfer what was then known as the Communicable Diseases Center to land that Woodruff donated to the federal government. Woodruff had seen firsthand how a public health intervention improved the lives of workers on his farm, Ichauway, in South Georgia, helping them avoid the ravages of malaria that was rampant in the 1930s and 1940s South, and he wanted a strong public health presence in Atlanta.

New Tools!

Medscape Videos

Commentaries on the new group B strep prevention guidelines and best practices for the use of PCR for diagnosing pertussis were recently released as part of a collaboration between CDC and Medscape. In this series, experts from CDC offer video commentaries on current topics for practicing clinicians. DBD has also contributed to available commentaries on pertussis disease/vaccines/testing, meningococcal disease/vaccines, pneumococcal disease/vaccines, and appropriate antibiotic use. Visit the Medscape site to view these commentaries.

Global Health Video

Epidemics of bacterial meningitis in Africa can affect hundreds of thousands of people and kill many thousands. In the video, "CDC Responds to Meningitis in Burkina Faso," it is described how CDC contributed to development of an inexpensive vaccine, works with partners to ensure it is used where needed most, and evaluates effectiveness.

View this video (3:13 min)

Group B Strep Podcast

A podcast for pregnant women about group B strep was launched. In this podcast a pediatrician, who’s also a new mom, talks about group B strep in pregnant women, the serious effects it can have on newborns, how you can find out if you have group B strep bacteria in your body and what to do to prevent spreading it to your infant.

Listen To This Podcast (6:14 minutes)

Continuing Education Course

The Get Smart: Know When Antibiotics Work program has launched a free, one hour continuing education course designed for community pharmacists. The educational activity is comprised of various video clips and slides that review the importance of understanding antibiotic resistance, the latest trends in antibiotic resistance in the community, mechanisms of resistance, why antibiotics are often prescribed inappropriately, and how to promote the proper use of antibiotics within the community pharmacy setting. Go to the Get Smart site to access the course.

Pertussis Nasopharyngeal Specimen Collection Videos: In light of the 2010 pertussis increase, clinicians are increasingly ordering tests for pertussis. Appropriate specimen collection is vital to obtaining accurate diagnostic results. Two training videos for pertussis specimen collection were recently released – for nasopharyngeal swab and aspirate procedures. Visit the pertussis site to watch these videos in English or Spanish.

Epocrates Smartphone App Learning Activity: DBD/MVPDB and CDC’s Electronic Media Branch, working in collaboration with Epocrates.com have launched CDC: Pertussis Testing, an EssentialPoints® mobile learning activity that is now available to healthcare professionals in these specialties — pediatrics, primary care (internal medicine, family practice, etc.), ENT, ID, pulmonary, prevention, geriatrics, as well as all students — who use Epocrates on the iPhone®. Visit Epocrates for more information.

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