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1976 Grad Leads Fight Against Ebola “Jordan can provide a truly unique perspective on what’s happening in West Africa,” said former CDC colleague Dr. Ali Khan, M.D., M.P.H., dean of UNMC’s Col-lege of Public Health. “I am grateful he reached out to me and offered to speak on our campus – his alma mater.” Dr. Tappero said that work in West Africa has been nonstop. “I have seen what needs to be done to stop Ebola from spreading. But the scale of this Ebola outbreak is unprecedented,” Dr. Tappero said. “In 2014, the sys-tems in place to identify, refer, isolate and treat Ebola cases were overwhelmed. “Knowledge of how the disease is spread varied from community to community, and unsafe burial practices were taking place far and wide. Though the global response has vastly improved, our work there is ongoing. We are committed to getting to zero cases of Ebola transmitted and to public health system recovery efforts post-Ebola.”
Captain Jordan W. Tappero, MD, MPH is Director of the Division of Global Health Protection Center for Global Health
Jordan Tappero, M.D., M.P.H., director of the Division of Global Health Protec-tion (DGHP), Center for Global Health, returned to Omaha to present the “CDC’s Response to Ebola in West Africa,” on Monday, April 6, 2015. The presentation was a part of the Univeristy of Nebraska Medical Center’s (UNMC) observance of Public Health Week. Dr. Tappero, a 1982 graduate of UNMC’s College of Medicine, 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 Govern-ment’s (USG) Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART). Upon returning to Atlanta in late September, he served as deputy incident man-ager through January 2015 for the CDC Director’s Ebola Response, assisting with directing the dayto-day international and domestic response activities man-aged through CDC’s Emergency Operations Center.
"Though the global response has vastly improved, our work there is ongoing. We are committed to getting to zero cases of Ebola transmitted and to public health system recovery efforts post Ebola." 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). DGHP is CDC's most visible program for strengthening global health security and
w e s t s i d e a l u m n i a s s o c i at i o n
developing public health capacity to prevent, detect and respond to communicable infectious disease threats around the world. DGHP builds capacity in applied epidemiology through field epidemiology training programs and fosters the development of National Public Health Institutes with Ministries of Health globally. In the event of a global disease epidemic or humani-tarian disaster, DGHP often leads CDC’s global response. Dr. Tappero led CDC’s emergency response following the 2010 Haiti earthquake and followon response to epidemic cholera. Dr. Tappero joined CDC in July 1992 as an epidemic intelligence service officer, is a captain in the U.S. Public Health Service, maintains three American board certifications and holds a master’s degree in public health from the University of California, Berkeley. He has authored or co-authored more than 250 peer-reviewed publications, as well as textbook chapters on HIV, TB, malaria, meningococcal disease, leptospi-rosis, Ebola and Marburg hemorrhagic fever, cholera and other emerging infec-tions.
This information was provided by Tom O’Connor, Senior Associate Director Public Relations, University of Nebraska Medical Center
inside this edition President's Corner.................. 2 Westside Open........................ 2 Alumni Teachers...................... 3 VIVI Save the Date................... 4 Omaha Gives........................... 4 From the Principal................... 5 Reunions 2015......................... 5 Upcoming Events.................... 5