April 1, 2009
(This article was first published in the Winter 2008 edition of Epi Notes.)
Following the terrorist and anthrax attacks in 2001, US Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson directed the CDC to assign an EIS (Epidemic Intelligence Service) officer or graduate to every state. In response, the CDC created the Career Epidemiology Field Officer (CEFO) Program in early 2002; that has since comprised a national cadre of EIS-trained CEFOs who work with states and large local health departments to develop epidemiologic and emergency response capacities.
The objectives of the CEFO Program include:
Since 2002, three CEFOs have served in the NC Division of Public Health. Dr. Megan Davies completed her EIS assignment in Louisiana in 2000 and served in the Injury Center at CDC before becoming North Carolina’s first CEFO. During her tenure, Megan focused on enhancing infectious disease surveillance capacity within the state. She was instrumental in establishing the Public Health Epidemiologist Program that includes 12 hospital-based epidemiologists who serve as surveillance sentinels while building relationships between the clinical and public health communities. In addition, Megan assisted in the development of NC DETECT (North Carolina Disease Event Tracking and Epidemiologic Collection Tool) – a national model for near real-time, statewide enhanced surveillance. Megan left the CEFO program in 2007.
Brant Goode became the state’s second CEFO after completing his EIS training in North Carolina in 2006. Brant quickly assumed leadership roles in pandemic influenza preparedness and response planning and training. He assisted in the development of a nationwide public health training program for responding to highly pathogenic avian influenza outbreaks and pandemic influenza. Following Brant’s departure in 2008, North Carolina received its third and current CEFO, Dr. Aaron Fleischauer, in August.
Aaron has served as a CDC epidemiologist since 2002 when he entered the Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Program’s EIS program. Like Megan, Aaron will focus on continuing to strengthen the state’s surveillance capability. Additionally, he will focus on establishing a comprehensive disaster epidemiology program to enhance and integrate local and state epidemiologic resources. The program will address preparedness and response needs such as:
Megan, Brant and Aaron’s experience serving our state echoes the sentiment shared by CEFOs nationwide – “When local public health is strong the nation’s public health system is strong.” For six years, the CEFO program has worked to build the all-hazards epidemiologic capability within North Carolina while continuing to strengthen the relationship between local and state health public health and the federal government.