By Body and Mind staff, PennLive.com
September 11, 2011
Eugene J. Lengerich's investigation led him to cheese.
Whether it was cheddar or a more run-of-the-mill processed variety he doesn't remember.
It was the early 1990s, and as a scientist with the epidemiology intelligence service of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Lengerich was dispatched to Minnesota to investigate an outbreak of salmonella. The University of Pennsylvania-trained epidemiologist used an exhaustive process of collection and clinical analysis to zero in on the culprit.
In a post-9/11 world, Lengerich applies his understanding of disease investigation and outbreaks — both human and animal — to homeland security.
In July, Lengerich, 56, was appointed director of the Public Health Preparedness Master's Degree Program in Homeland Security in the World Campus of Penn State University.
"This was epidemiology in action, where I could use my clinical training and quantitative skills to keep a population healthy," said Lengerich, who was most recently a faculty member in cancer epidemiology at the Penn State College of Medicine in Hershey.
Lengerich, who began his career in veterinary medicine, thought he would specialize in large animal practice. Instead his career path lead him to gain expertise with agricultural and cancer epidemiology.
Lengerich said the terrorist attacks of 9/11 provided a stark opportunity for hospitals, first responders, health officials and authorities, both local and federal, to take stock of their ability to prevent or respond to a lethal outbreak of disease, bioterrorism and even catastrophic natural disasters such as that leveled by Hurricane Katrina.
For the past five years, the medical college’s two-year master's degree program has trained hundreds of students across the country and around the world in public health preparedness. Other components of the program include: geospatial intelligence, information security and forensics, and agriculture biosecurity.
"I think what 9/11 taught us was that we need to include these kinds of occurrences in the public health preparedness training program," Lengerich said.
Preparedness, prevention and response play a crucial role in student training.
"We are never prepared for an attack such as 9/11," Lengerich said. "Has preparedness improved? Yes it has. We have built evacuation plans. We have disaster plans for all hospitals and for regions now that really were not very well developed previously. But something on the order of 9/11? No, I don’t think we are prepared for that."
Other components of the advanced degree program include preparedness to deal with a public health crisis such as a pandemic flu.
"That's a real threat," Lengerich said. "We have seen that periodically throughout world history. A lot of people predict it’s going to happen at some point in time. Are we prepared to deal with the immediate sickness and illness from that? Are we prepared to give out vaccination in a timely manner to the people that are most appropriate to receive them sequentially?"
The long hours Lengerich puts in at the medical center are offset by his passion for his scientific field.
"It’s exciting," said Lengerich, who enjoys backpacking, the outdoors and farming.
When he doesn’t have a hand in directing the program or working with its seven faculty members, Lengerich, who spent several years as a public health sciences professor in the College of Medicine, continues his research in cancer epidemiology.
Lengerich said the online master's degree program provides lively interaction between faculty and students — the majority of them in the military or members of state and federal emergency agencies or public health systems. Interaction in the program, which is offered through the university’s World Campus, plays out on the Internet, across discussion boards, chat rooms and e-presentations.
"When that occurs well, it really is as good as any classroom discussion and maybe better," Lengerich said. "It’s not synchronistic. They can go and come to the conversation. They can go and think about something and bring back a new perspective they didn't have, whereas if you do that in a classroom, that’s a one-time occurrence, a one-hour occurrence, then it’s over."
As part of the course, students have developed disaster plans for local hospitals and preparedness programs to deal with anthrax attacks and other bioterrorist threats. Some students, he is certain, will eventually apply their degrees to jobs within national homeland security.
The lessons gleaned from 9/11, he said, go right back to the name of the program — preparedness.
"I think we have come a long way in doing that," Lengerich said. "By developing hospital plans, public evacuation plans, by preparing for mass vaccinations. So I think we have definitely learned to help our systems to be able to recognize and respond to those occurrences."