global health

by Julie Becker, program assistant, City of Milwaukee Public Health Laboratory; Sanjib Bhattacharyya, PhD, deputy director, City of Milwaukee Public Health Laboratory; Steve Gradus, PhD, D( ABMM), director, City of Milwaukee Public Health Laboratory; and Kwadwo Owusu-Ofori, PhD, operations manager, City of Milwaukee Public Health Laboratory

Pictured from l to r: Dr. Kwadwo Owusu-Ofori, Dr. Musa Melton, Dr. Lilian Akudo Okeke, Dr. Abisola Oladimeji, Dr. Sanjib Bhattacharrya, Bevan K. Baker, Dr. Steve Gradus, Dr. Paul Hunter, Dr. Anthony Azenabor, Dr. Mahmood Dalhat, Abel Olusola Idowu and Marisa Stanley. Photo by Nancy Hills, MHD Graphics

Marisa Stanley, Abel Olusola Idowu, Dr. Steve Gradus and Samuel Dawson( background) listen as Dr. Mahmood Dalhat discusses the group’ s interest around public health preparedness and response. Photo by International Visitor Leadership Program, US Department of State

Recently, MHDL collaborated with the International Institute of Wisconsin to host a group of Nigerian public health officials participating in the US Department of State’ s International Visitor Leadership Program( IVLP)— an initiative that brings foreign leaders to the United States to engage with their professional counterparts in an exchange of ideas and best practices.

Since one of the group’ s objectives for their visit was exploring public health preparedness and response, the MHDL was selected by the IVLP to cover Milwaukee’ s 1993 Cryptosporidium outbreak, and steps taken since then to safeguard the city’ s water supply and monitor and assure water quality as a public health issue.

Visiting Nigerian doctors and epidemiologists included:

• Dr. Mahmood Dalhat, HIV coordinator for the Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Center

• Dr. Musa Melton, state team leader for the Borno State Polio Emergency Program

• Dr. Lilian Akudo Okeke, state field coordinator / epidemiologist for the National Veterinary Research Institute

• Dr. Abisola Oladimeji, field coordinator for the African Field Epidemiology Network.

Together we hope to strengthen laboratory system partnerships beyond our local jurisdictions, working toward building global health capacity and health equity internationally.

Commissioner Bevan K. Baker, FACHE, MHD; Paul Hunter, MD, associate medical director, MHD; and Marisa Stanley, MPH, MHD epidemiologist, as well as University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Biomedical Sciences professor and academic partner Anthony Azenabor, PhD, CS( ASCP) also shared information on preparedness, global health initiatives and research partnering.

The Nigerian visitors showed particular interest in MHD’ s clinical, epidemiological and laboratory activities, including regulatory issues such the role of CLIA; public health preparedness and response efforts for Zika and Ebola viruses; and physicians roles. CDC’ s concept of“ One Health” that recognizes the health connections of humans, animals and the environment was also introduced.

“ We had a great opportunity to learn from our new colleagues and share some of our experiences. We hope to continue this relationship in the future,” said Steve Gradus, PhD, D( ABMM) director of MHDL.

Along with MHDL, the group also visited the Wisconsin Department of Health Services Bureau of Communicable Diseases and Division of Quality Assurance, the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine and the Center for Urban Population Health. The group finished their tour at CDC before returning to Nigeria.

Dr. Musa Melton talks with Dr. Paul Hunter and Marisa Stanley following the meeting. Photo by International Visitor Leadership Program, US Department of State Historically, MHDL has hosted international visitors around the Cryptosporidium laboratory response, and general laboratory delegations, including the Botswana Ministry of Health in 2011 and researchers from the University of Lagos. Other global health activities of the MHDL have included collaborating on APHL’ s Global Health and Workforce Development committees and Global Health Security Agenda( GHSA) initiatives; participating in influenza molecular diagnostic testing workshops; coaching Ministry of Health staff in Lesotho and Uganda; and working with the Milwaukee-based Center for International Health. In the last three years MHDL has hosted two doctoral students from Lagos, including a Fulbright Scholar currently researching malarial parasite immunology and drug sensitivity. With this recent meeting comes the opportunity to further such collaborations.

“ We are proud to host this team of interdisciplinary global experts in Milwaukee,” said Sanjib Bhattacharyya, PhD, deputy laboratory director.“ Together we hope to strengthen laboratory system partnerships beyond our local jurisdictions, working toward building global health capacity and health equity internationally.”