Day 7(1/9/18) *Atlanta/CDC*
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Welcome to day 7! It's our last day at the CDC before we move to Geneva tomorrow to learn at the World Health Organization(WHO). Wow I can’t believe I just wrote that and it’s actually true-we got to be at the CDC and now we also get to go to the WHO…I can’t believe how lucky I am.
So, to begin the day, we convened in the big auditorium for a CDC EIS officers (’16) update meeting. In it, members of the EIS class of 2016 (it’s a 2 year program) convened and listened to 3 brief case status reports from their peers, followed by a case study presentation by another one of their peers. It was so official! The case study was from an outbreak of strep in the homeless population in Anchorage, Alaska (in fact, at the time of the study, being homeless had a relative risk of 84 associated with strep! That means that if you were homeless, you were 84x more likely to get strep than if you were not homeless). The whole project took place over 2 years I believe, so the student had a very well-prepared presentation with a fascinating story to tell. She carried us through her investigations at the homeless shelters, proposed treatment recommendations, and surveillance mechanisms. Apparently they had to provide a dose of an antibiotic to everyone who came to the homeless shelters so as to try to control the spread among the large population (900 in Anchorage)—it got me thinking about the antibacterial resistance talk we listened to a few days ago, and what the impact of such a treatment would be on the evolution of the strep bacteria. But the student then went on to report that they examined the DNA of the bacteria before and after the antibiotics had been used to confirm that no antibiotic resistance occurred-I didn’t even know you could do that!
Apparently this was a relatively novel study at the CDC, since most investigations had not been on homeless populations. I’m wondering if, given the fact that this student successfully carried out investigations on a population quite difficult to track and follow-up with, the CDC might be able to track the use/misuse of multi-dose antibiotics as it relates to the homelessness, rather than as it relates to easily-trackable people, such as in a clinical setting(which apparently they have done). She did say that ~560,000 people in the US are homeless, which is only .5% of the US population (so maybe not quite population-level? I’m not sure), but that still seems like a large number to me!
Anyway, from there we got to listen to an EIS officer panel which Melissa set up specifically for us (a private panel of public health workers each holding a PhD, a MPH, a MD, or a combination of these degrees, all there just for us and our questions! Wow!) We asked them all sorts of questions about their backgrounds, their motivations, the EIS application process, and their future plans. One panelist’s comment really resonated with me. He said that by working in the EIS, he will now know how to connect with patients on both an individual level(as a doctor) and on a global level, understanding the more broad impact of the ailments of his patients, without taking the “individual/human” aspect out of his work. Also, he said that working at the CDC is allowing him to make many connections to other healthcare professionals(many of whom have a significant say in what goes on in the healthcare policy world)-professionals who may be able to help his patients in the future as a result of the connections! I was happy to learn this, because I would potentially consider applying for the CDC/a public health program, but I hope to work with individuals in a clinical setting long-term (of course, that might change, but for the moment it’s what I’d like to do)—hearing from a student in the same boat and who believes that the CDC work will be very impactful clinically was certainly reassuring!
We were able to have lunch with one of the EIS officers (who holds a biostatistics PhD), an ole alum (who was working on her MD/PhD in pediatric rheumatology), and Julie after the panel, and that was really interesting too. Apparently the alum, Julia, had been an advisee of Julie’s several years ago! They all discussed the “IRTA” program at the NIH, and its impact on their futures in public health-I’m a bit unsure about the program still, so I plan to ask Julie more about it, but it seems like a way to work in public health research after completing an undergrad degree-I think that would be a great experience, so I will definitely be looking into it more. Along with IRTA, we talked about the paths that each took to get to where they are now in their careers, and there was a very common theme (consistent with the comments of previous speakers as well!): they all left undergrad unsure of what they wanted to do, explored their interests, asked around for opportunities to do what excited them, and worked very hard applying for several programs before settling into their current impressive careers. That gives me a lot of hope as someone who is unsure what to do once I graduate!
To finish off the night, Paul and Julie took out my presentation group to dinner at “The Tavern”. They take out one group at a time to a dinner place of the group’s choosing, so as to have some more individual time to get to know the students, rather than just as one large class group. I enjoyed getting to know Paul and Julie a bit better and to hear about their international travels and their lives outside of academia, and we all shared a really yummy meal! It was a wonderful way to end the evening :)
Tonight is our last night at the Villa, I will certainly miss it! Tomorrow my group will give our presentation and then the class will board our flight to Geneva—so I better get some rest before then :)
Goodnight!
-Anna
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| View of the CDC from the Villa where we're staying |
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