It was early afternoon at Jordan Middle School and students were buzzing in the halls as they moved from fifth to sixth period. Katie, feeling a little queasy, stopped by the girls' restroom and was surprised to see quite a few of her classmates leaning over the sinks, clearly feeling much worse than she was. The Principal was alerted and a quick poll showed that most of those who were sick had eaten either the mystery casserole or the pepperoni pizza from the cafeteria earlier that day.
Who is the Principal gonna call?
You got it! Sara Cody is on the way. Sara is a medical doctor who has gone through a program called the Epidemic Intelligence Service, run by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC.) One of the many things that someone like Sara does is research the cause of widespread food-related illnesses so that we can help the people who are ill and also try to prevent similar outbreaks from happening again. It can be fast-paced, exciting work.
Rene Russo played an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer (EISO) in the movie, The Hot Zone, but, says Sara, "Real life as an EISO isn't quite so glamorous."
Why are they called shoe leather epidemiologists anyway?
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a.
They wear very high heels on the job.
b. They go undercover at shoe shine stands.
c. They wear out lots of shoes chasing down clues.
What kind of shoes?
Yup, they get to buy lots of shoes -- but the kind that are easy to walk around in. "The idea is that to get good information, you need to be a dedicated detective and sometimes that means getting out into the field and walking a lot, following one lead after another, and wearing a hole in the sole of your shoe!" explains Sara.
"For example, during an investigation of infections linked to unpasteurized apple juice, we not only interviewed ill patients to better understand what they'd been eating and drinking and where and when they bought the products. We also spent a lot of time studying how apple juice was made at the plant. Then, after a week at the plant, we set out to try to find out how apples might have become contaminated on the apple farms before they were shipped to the juice plant."
What kind of training do you need to do this job?
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a.
Watch lots of detective movies
b. Know your shoes
c. Be trained in a health-related field and then apply to the EIS program
You will need a degree in medicine, veterinary science, nursing, dentistry or other related scientific field and a proven interest in public health in order to apply to the EIS program. (See more details at the Epidemic Intelligence Service site.)
The EIS is a unique two-year postgraduate program of service and on-the-job training for health professionals. Since 1951, over 2,000 EIS Officers have traveled all over the world helping to deal with health crises. They also play a major role in preventing disease and injury and promoting healthy lifestyles.
Sara applied after a friend and mentor said it was the best thing she'd ever done during her entire career as a doctor... "and she'd done a lot of amazing things!" She was looking for a little adventure after three years of medical residency training and she got it.
What's the most embarrassing thing that ever happened to Sara on the job?
Most doctors (and parents) have had someone throw up on them and there is no such thing as a dumb question. So here's the poop on the poop.
"In the wake of the illness outbreak from apple juice, a colleague and I were visiting an apple farm. I had a really strong hunch that we were going to find the smoking gun at this farm and solve the case. We knew that sometimes deer can carry E.coli bacteria in their intestinal tracts, so, we went to the farm to look for evidence of deer, including deer feces. My colleague and I spent an entire morning wandering through the orchard looking for deer feces and picking up samples to send to the lab for testing.
After we were done, we went to thank the farmer and update him about what we'd collected from his orchard. He looked at our bags and just laughed. We hadn't picked up any deer feces -- it was all rabbit and coyote. He must have thought we were really dumb, big city scientists. We lost what little credibility we had as animal experts."
Sara's advice to all Girl Zone readers is "Everything you do and learn can be ultimately relevant. You just never know when you might need it. If I'd paid more attention on field trips, I might have been better at identifying deer feces!! But in the end, follow your heart, see where your curiosity takes you, and do what you love."