Fall 2003 Issue
Vietnamese Lilly Fellow Gains Public Health Training and Experience
Fellowships Offer Unique Access to Public Health Training
Over the last eight years, the CDC Foundation has supported 174 fellows to train or work at CDC. Some of these fellows participate in structured fellowship programs, while others assist CDC with specific projects. The structured fellowship programs are designed for groups such as medical students, journalists and scientists to obtain specific kinds of public health training at CDC. The project-specific fellowships vary greatly and are determined by the needs of the CDC project.
Fellowships are just one more way the CDC Foundation works to help CDC do more, faster.
Doan C. Nguyen, M.D., a Vietnamese laboratory researcher, has learned a lot about avian influenza (“bird flu”) during his one-year stint as an Eli Lilly Emerging Infectious Disease Fellow. Over the past year, he has been performing research on these influenza viruses at CDC´s Influenza Branch in the National Center for Infectious Diseases (NCID).
In Hanoi, Nguyen works in the Laboratory of Respiratory Viruses at the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology (NIHE), a top-level government agency that conducts epidemiological surveillance for influenza.
“As an Eli Lilly Fellow, I have been working to better understand the frequency of transmission of the avian influenza to humans, and the risks to humans, by conducting surveillance among poultry workers who work in the live-bird markets of Hanoi,” says Nguyen.
Learning how avian flu spreads from poultry to people
The ability of avian flu to cause respiratory disease in humans was first established in 1997 in Hong Kong, when 18 people were hospitalized because of infection with a virus that was previously seen only in birds. Studies found that this flu spread from poultry to people – but not easily from person to person.
As part of his fellowship, Nguyen gathered blood samples from a group of Hanoi poultry workers. Under the direction of his mentor, Jackie Katz, Ph.D., chief of the Influenza Branch´s Immunology and Viral Pathogenesis Section, he has been testing serum from those samples for antibodies to determine whether or not humans have been infected. Additionally, he is working on virus isolation studies to better understand the circulation of avian viruses in the Hanoi live-bird markets.
“Avian viruses can be a risk to public health, especially among populations like poultry workers who are exposed to birds on a daily basis,” says Katz. “Based on his training at CDC, Doan is a much more well-rounded influenza virologist, whose training and experience will be a valuable asset when he returns to NIHE in Hanoi.”
Although his one-year fellowship was completed in August 2003, Nguyen will remain at NCID for another year – with support from CDC – to complete his research.
Fellowship enables in-depth study
Previously, Nguyen was a visiting scientist at CDC´s Influenza Branch for three months in 1998, as well as for several months in 2001. While these visits were helpful, Nguyen explains that his fellowship has offered him a more in-depth research and training opportunity.
When the SARS epidemic struck earlier this year, Nguyen immediately became a crucial link between his laboratory colleagues at NIHE in Hanoi and CDC. “I was able to help NIHE by offering them the advice of many CDC experts, as well as coordinating the shipment of SARS analysis tools from CDC to Vietnam,” he says.
Nguyen is extremely grateful to his CDC colleagues and mentors, and plans to dedicate his life to studying influenza. “I hope that my country’s research will help increase understanding about the circulation of both human and avian strains of influenza worldwide,” he says.
Nguyen’s laboratory fellowship was sponsored by Eli Lilly and Company in partnership with the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL), CDC and the CDC Foundation. The CDC Foundation is grateful to APHL for its outstanding work in coordinating these fellowships on behalf of the Foundation. The one-year program is designed for non-U.S. citizen doctoral-level scientists with an emphasis on professional development in laboratory-related aspects of infectious diseases caused by naturally occurring or intentionally released infectious agents.
-Lisa Splitlog