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When I decided on a career in medicine, my passion was driven by a desire to serve.
During a Rotary Exchange Scholarship to the Republic of South Africa, during a time when the government’s system of legislation upholding apartheid was in place, I was provided the opportunity to visit Bantu homelands and volunteer at the local nonwhite hospital, further cementing my desire to contribute .
That spirit of service is an identity for public health practitioners around the world, although unlike other medical specialties, there is not always a clear path forward. The practice of infectious disease is an integral component of public health practice because infectious diseases do not obey borders or boundaries.
I entered the Epidemic Intelligence Service program in 1981, a time when most of my class was assigned to work on a newly described disease entity — what later became recognized as AIDS. This introduction to emerging and subsequent reemerging infectious diseases led me to focus my career on infectious disease epidemiology. The never-ending onslaught of issues, many of which do not have textbook answers in terms of response or prevention, require careful thought and collaboration with our many partners in our concerted efforts to impact health at the community level.
Today, our biggest opportunities perhaps lie with our biggest challenges, including the breakdown in public trust. Infectious disease practitioners working in local community practices, academic institutions, industry or government agencies are called upon to communicate science effectively, taking on problems and pushing for and providing leadership in response to the disease du jour. The challenges can be great, but our contributions to society at large in building that trust are critical, providing identity and a sense of purpose to our work.
The rejuvenating driving force for our never-ending endeavors is the recognition that there is a face behind every statistic.
Editor’s note: The opinions and conclusions expressed in this article are solely the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the FDA.
— Kathleen F Gensheimer, MD, MPH, FIDSA
Editorial Board Member, Infectious Disease News
Medical officer, FDA Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition
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