When

Thursday, June 21, 2018 from 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM CDT
Add to Calendar

Where

This is an online event.

Contact

Pamela D. Phillips
Program Coordinator
UTHealth
Prevention, Preparedness, and Response (P2R) Academy
713-500-8518
pamela.d.phillips@uth.tmc.edu

Photo image: www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/index.html

A Public Health Situation Report and Refresher Regarding Ebola Virus Disease

This free 1-hour webinar will describe the current outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC); explain the advisories issued by the World Health Organization and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; review the risk factors and modes of transmission of EVD and provide guidance to healthcare workers and others who may come into contact with EVD or Persons Under Investigation. The goal of this update is to increase awareness to limit the possible further spread of the virus. Given our increasingly interconnected world and the rarity with which we deal with such exotic diseases, it is important to understand and closely track outbreak situations regardless of where they occur.

This program highlights two pre-eminent EVD experts from the UTHealth School of Public Health faculty, Drs. Joseph McCormick and Susan Fisher-Hoch, who will describe their experiences regarding the management of this disease from remote locations in Africa to the clinical setting here in Texas. We also welcome the expertise of Dr. Scott Patlovich, Director of Environmental Health and Safety at UTHealth, who will describe the 2014-2015 EVD outbreak and will summarize the improved methods and protocols now in place at UTHealth as a result of the lessons learned during that outbreak. This session will be facilitated by Dr. Robert J. Emery, Vice President of Safety, Health, Environment and Risk Management.

Who should join in this educational event?

Anyone interested in EVD, infection prevention or biosafety should attend this webcast. The information delivered will be particularly valuable for people who work in healthcare settings, including healthcare professionals and support personnel. Receptionists, security officials, waste managers, and others who work in these settings should attend.

Agenda

Intro- Dr. Emery

Current Outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in the Democratic Republic of Congo - Dr. Patlovich

Summary of 2014-15 Outbreak- Dr. Patlovich

Review of EVD signs/symptoms, modes of transmission, risk factors - Drs McCormick/Fisher-Hoch

Importance of Obtaining Travel History/Epidemiology- Dr. McCormick

Dallas hospital: Lessons learned- Dr. McCormick

Review of PPE Disinfection/Decontamination considerations-Drs Patlovich/Fisher-Hoch

Waste Disposal Issues- Drs Patlovich/Fisher-Hoch

Contacts, Screening, Vaccines- Drs Emery/McCormick

About The Speakers

Robert Emery, DrPH, CHP, CIH, CBSP, CSP, CHMM, CPP, ARM

Vice President for Safety, Health, Environment & Risk Management

The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston

Professor of Occupational Health, The University of Texas School of Public Health

Co-Director of the Prevention, Preparedness and Response (P2R) Academy

Dr. Robert Emery is Vice President for Safety, Health, Environment & Risk Management for The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and Professor of Occupational Health at the University of Texas School of Public Health. He has over 37 years of experience in health & safety and holds master’s degrees in both health physics and environmental sciences, and a doctorate in occupational health. Bob is unique in that he possesses national board certification in all of the main areas of health & safety:

• health physics [Certified Health Physicist, CHP],

• industrial hygiene [Certified Industrial Hygienist, CIH],

• biological safety [Certified Biological Safety Professional, CBSP],

• occupational safety [Certified Safety Professional, CSP],

• hazardous materials management [Certified Hazardous Materials Manager, CHMM],

• security [Certified Protection Professional, CPP],

• risk management [Associate in Risk Management, ARM]

Scott Patlovich, DrPH, CBSP, SM(NRCM), CHMM, CPH

Director of Environmental, Health & Safety at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth).

He holds a Doctorate of Public Health in Occupational and Environmental Health Sciences (concentration in epidemiology and disease control) from the University of Texas School of Public Health and a Master of Public Health in Occupational and Environmental Health Sciences (concentration in industrial hygiene) from the same school. Scott is a Certified Biological Safety Professional, a Specialist Microbiologist in Biological Safety Microbiology, a Certified Hazardous Materials Manager, and is Certified in Public Health. Previously, Scott served as a safety manager at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute, which has the only privately operated BSL-4 laboratory in the country. He also worked as a Senior Safety and Health Manager in the Office of Safety, Health, and Environment at the National University of Singapore.

Sue Fisher-Hoch (McCormick), MD
Professor of Epidemiology

Sue Fisher-Hoch graduated First Class from the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine being awarded the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson fellowship. She then gained a Masters’ degree in Medical Microbiology, membership of the Royal College of Pathology (Boards) specializing in virology and a doctoral degree in epidemiology (MD). Her doctoral thesis findings published in the Lancet reported the first isolation of Legionella pneumophila from a patient, and the first identification of hot water systems as the source. She also at this time discovered the role of parvovirus B19 as the causative agent of Fifth’s Disease (slapped check syndrome). In 1986 she was recruited to CDC, Atlanta, where she studied the pathophysiology of Ebola and Lassa viruses in non-human primates and patients and developed vaccines, traveling widely to Africa and Asia conducting epidemiological studies. In 1992 she moved to Karachi where she published studies on tuberculosis and Congo Crimean Hemorrhagic Fever among several studies. In the late 1990a she designed the French BSL4 space suit laboratory, and was awarded the L�gion d’Honneur by the President of France. Since 2001 she has worked in Brownsville, south Texas, establishing an extensively documented minority cohort making major advances in understanding of diabetes and its many complications and risk factors in minority populations. She now directs this Cameron County Hispanic Cohort; a population based Mexican American Cohort numbering 4,500 individuals followed up regularly. This cohort is the focus of multiple collaborations with institutes across Texas and the United States, including MDAnderson, the McGovern School of Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine and many others, In 2016 the cohort was the basis of a Program Grant proposal at the invitation of the NCI. She has published a total of about 200 papers with several more in preparation.

Joseph B. McCormick, MD, MS

Regional Dean and James Steele Professor
University of Texas School of Publich Health
Brownsville Regional Campus
Associate Dean, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine
Professor of Epidemiology, UTHealth San Antonio SOM

Dr. McCormick was raised on a farm in Indiana. After graduating from Florida Southern College with majors in chemistry and mathematics, he attended L’Alliance Fran�aise and the Free University in Brussels in preparation for teaching sciences and mathematics in French in a secondary school in the Congo where in the local hospital he was introduced to medicine. He entered Duke Medical School in 1967 graduating in 1971 with an intercalated MS from Harvard School of Public Health (1970) under Dr. Thomas Weller (Nobel Laureate 1954). His internship and residency were at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia under Dr. C. Everett Koop (later became US Surgeon General). In 1974 he became an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer (EIS), at the CDC, and a fellow in Preventive Medicine.

In 1977 he founded the CDC Lassa fever Research Project in Sierra Leone, where he received an emergency call to join the team investigating the first Ebola epidemic in 1976 and again in 1979. In Sierra Leone he conducted definitive studies of the epidemiology and successful antiviral treatment of Lassa hemorrhagic fever. He became Chief, Special Pathogens Branch, Division of Viral Diseases at the CDC in 1982, directing the Biosafety level 4 laboratories for 9 years. He organized and led the original team in the first AIDS investigation in Africa in 1983 and established the Project SIDA in Kinshasa, Zaire, and later, with Dr. DeCock an EIS officer the Project Retro-Ci in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. In 1983 he identified the virus that causes Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome (Hantavirus) in his laboratory at CDC.

His awards include the USPHS Meritorious Service Medal, and humanitarian awards from Florida Southern College and Duke University Medical School, and Friend of Public Health award from the Texas DSHS. Dr. McCormick has over 300 scientific publications with co-authors from over 20 countries. He has contributed to television, newspapers and periodicals and is featured in several books for the lay reader (e.g.,The Coming Plague, The Hot Zone). With his wife, Sue Fisher-Hoch he co-authored a popular account (Level 4, Virus Hunters of the CDC) of their professional adventures that was translated into seven languages. He was an expert commentator for CNN, Fox, and MSNBC during the Ebola epidemic. He is an accomplished amateur pianist, and enjoys outdoor activities such as biking, back packing, skiing and fly-fishing.

This event is co-sponsored by

Prevention, Preparedness, and Response (P2R) Academy
Southern Biosafety Association

UTHEALTH School of Public Health Student Epidemic Intelligence Society

General continuing education credits only