Calling the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit “very impressive,” Jordan Tappero, M.D., director of the Division of Global Health Protection (DGHP), Center for Global Health, for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), spoke at UNMC Monday on the U.S. response to Ebola.
“You can clearly see that a lot of thinking has gone into the facility over the last decade and that every patient provides an opportunity to learn more,” he said. “It’s quite a remarkable facility and a resource that you have here not only for the citizens of the state of Nebraska but for the entire country. You should be proud of yourself.”
Dr. Tappero, a UNMC alum, spent six months working to help control the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, including five weeks in Liberia last fall. He discussed the scale of the unprecedented outbreak and the response by the CDC, adding that there was still work ahead.
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During his visit, Dr. Tappero, left, met with UNMC Chancellor Jeffrey P. Gold, M.D. |
Dr. Tappero, who holds a master’s degree in public health, also spoke of the importance of public health in the battle against infectious disease.
“Having routine practice of public health in our communities, including communities throughout the world, is more likely going to identify an infectious disease threat early and therefore stop the infectious threat where it occurs rather than having to stop it on a much larger scale in multiple countries or even a pandemic,” he said.
Dr. Tappero was in Liberia in 2014 as incident manager for CDC teams in West Africa and as the first CDC lead for the public health and medical response for the United States Government’s (USG) Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART).
Upon returning to Atlanta in late September, he served as deputy incident manager through January 2015 for the CDC Director’s Ebola Response, assisting with directing the day-to-day international and domestic response activities managed through CDC’s Emergency Operations Center. As part of the CDC and DART teams, he helped find people with the virus in the community, get them into Ebola treatment centers and improve infection control practices to prevent the spread of the virus to health care workers and burial teams.
Dr. Tappero has returned to his duties as director for DGHP. He is responsible for implementing CDC’s contribution to the USG’s Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA).