Defending Against COVID-19: Biodefense Alumna Tam Dang, Dallas County Epidemiologist

Anonymous — Mon, 16 Mar 2020 04:11:49 +0000

Defending Against COVID-19: Biodefense Alumna Tam Dang, Dallas County Epidemiologist Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 03/16/2020 - 00:11

The global COVID-19 crisis will require scientists and scholars who are educated and trained to take on the world’s most dangerous problems. The Biodefense program at the Schar School creates leaders in the field.

Tam Dang earned a Bachelor’s of Science degree from Mason, then a Master’s in Biodefense at the Schar School.

Dallas County, like many U.S. jurisdictions, is working to minimize the risk of an outbreak of coronavirus while also providing information about the outbreak to citizens. In the middle of it is Tam Dang.

Dang started in the biology world, earning her Bachelor’s of Science degree from ��AV in 2008. But it was her course of study in the Master’s in Biodefense program at the Schar School that put her on her present career path.

The degree, she said, “introduced me to the public health field, and offered a unique perspective from a biosecurity and bioterrorism standpoint.”

Today, Dang is an epidemiologist for the Dallas County Department of Health and Human Services in Dallas, Texas. She works in the Acute Communicable Disease Epidemiology Division, helping to lead epidemiological investigations for infectious disease outbreaks or potential bioterrorism events. She monitors local, regional, and state data sources related to infectious diseases, and helps develop outbreak and bioterrorism plans to help support public health preparedness.

Her work is at the intersection of public health and health security, an important field in the modern era.

"I think some significant health security threats we are facing in the U.S. in 2019 are related to the potential for importations or outbreaks of high-consequence emerging infectious diseases, such as Ebola and avian influenza,” she said. “In a metropolitan area like Dallas/Fort Worth, our Public Health Emergency Preparedness division is keenly aware that our proximity to the nation’s 12th busiest airport confers particular risk for international importations of infectious diseases.”

Since joining the epidemiology team, Dang, who has since by joined by fellow Schar School 2019 biodefense master’s degree graduate Stephen Taylor, has found plenty of ways to leverage her biodefense degree. She has developed communicable disease and emergency response plans, facilitated a pandemic influenza exercise for medical students at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, and presented on insider threats in biosafety laboratories to sentinel lab personnel, to name a few.

Her degree from the Schar School’s biodefense program was key to landing her current position, she said.

“It helped me stand out from the pile of applications my supervisor received,” she said. “My biology background and prior employment experiences also played a large part in rounding out my graduate education and narrowing my professional field of interest.

“Overall, past experience and the added education and skills I obtained from the Biodefense program were critical factors in helping me pursue my career goals."

Additional reporting by Buzz McClain

Hot Topics in Biodefense – What You Need to Know

Anonymous — Tue, 08 Aug 2017 17:13:46 +0000

Hot Topics in Biodefense – What You Need to Know Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 08/08/2017 - 13:13

Biodefense is a fascinating field that marries public health, political science, policy, and science. While we used to think of biodefense as a response to bioterrorism, recent years have expanded its role to account for all infectious disease threats, regardless of origin.

The infectious disease threats facing the U.S. and the world require us to venture outside our historical comfort zone. Here are just a handful of the “hot topics” (pun intended) we face in biodefense efforts.

Naturally occurring infectious disease outbreaks
While this may seem straight-forward, the truth is much more complex. We still struggle to respond to diseases that we’ve either vaccinated against or have treatment readily available. Measles outbreaks, like that in Disneyland or currently plaguing Europe, and the yellow fever vaccine shortage are all avoidable public health events. Prevention and response efforts are also consistently lacking and subject to government funding woes. These issues don’t even touch on the threat of emerging infectious diseases that we have little experience in identifying or treating.

Simply put, we’re still struggling to respond to naturally occurring outbreaks, whether it be a vaccine-preventable diseases or emerging infections.

Antimicrobial resistance
This is perhaps one of the most under-appreciated and high-threat issues to face global health security. If bioterrorism is viewed as a low probability, high consequence event, then antimicrobial resistance is a high probability, high consequence reality. We’re nearing the edge of the antibiotic abyss, and efforts to spark innovation for drug development are still lacking. Strategies to strengthen antibiotic stewardship and decrease unnecessary usage are struggling against the lack of international surveillance programs, limited international regulations, agriculture usage, and medical tourism.

Growth of national biodefense programs
The threat of bioterrorism and infectious diseases has encouraged many states to develop biodefense programs. While global health security is extremely important, a poorly developed national biodefense program can bring more perils than prevention. A lack of transparency and dual-use research can trigger foreign governments to worry that the biodefense program is actually a cover for an offensive bioweapons program. Poor biosecurity and biosafety at facilities can also result in exposures and increase the risk for dangerous events. The more programs that exist, the more room for error, especially in countries that struggle with stability and fail to maintain transparency.

Poor hospital infection control
Most preparedness plans focus on surge capacity and availability of health professionals, but they fail to really address the problem; infection prevention and control. A hospital can have a large surge capacity, but if it can’t maintain basic precautions and safety isolate infectious patients, it will only fuel an outbreak. The healthcare-acquired cases of Ebola in Dallas, TX were prime examples of poor infection prevention practices. Moreover, infection prevention programs are a direct link between healthcare and public health reporting. Continued neglect of hospital infection control only contributes to rising antibiotic resistance, delayed infectious disease reporting and isolation, and poor preparedness.

Synthetic biology
The biotechnology revolution is booming and oversight is racing to catch up. Technologies like CRISPR-Cas9 make genomic editing easier, cheaper, and more accessible, which has created a new wave of do-it-yourself biohackers. While this technology has the potential for combating diseases, it also is widely available, and may worry that it could easily be used for nefarious purposes. The ease of use and availability of mail-order organisms means that a biohacker could genetically modify an organism to be more virulent, resistant to treatment, or even more transmissible. While the biotech industry is constantly growing and breaking barriers, efforts to form and maintain oversight are lagging.

Learn more about graduate programs in biodefense at the Schar School.

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Schar School of Policy and Government

Saskia Popescu

Defending Against COVID-19: Biodefense Alumna Tam Dang, Dallas County Epidemiologist

Hot Topics in Biodefense – What You Need to Know

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