Busy making an impact on the world, Maunank Shah, an assistant professor at the Hopkins School of Medicine, gave a public health lecture this past Monday. Lambda Epsilon Mu hosted Shah’s lecture, “Infectious Disease Control: Bridging the gap between clinical care, research, public health, and health policy,” in Charles Commons.
Shah opened the discussion with a personal anecdote. He gave the audience an example of a common patient interaction. A few weeks ago a young refugee coming into America from Eritrea went through JFK international Airport and was found coughing at the airport. Immigration stopped him and sent him straight to Hopkins Hospital to be treated. After chest x-rays and CT scans, they determined that he had pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) and put him
on the TB antibiotics, monitoring his dosages. Then, researchers from the CDC determined that forty percent of the population in the refugee camps in Eritrea where he was previously was were positive for MDR-TB and so Hopkins proceeded to quarantine the patient. This concluded Shah’s anecdote, but he utilized this real-life scenario to further describe the plethora of jobs in the healthcare system. Shah described the work of clinicians, employees in the Health Department, researchers and policy makers at the Federal, State and Local levels. Shah’s speech showed the audience just how many opportunities there are for different types of careers in the healthcare field.
Shah earned his undergraduate degree in Biology from the University of Virginia. After a year of doing nonprofit volunteerism in AmeriCorps, Shah went on to medical school at the University of California, San Francisco and continued on to do his residency in Internal Medicine at Emory University. He returned to Baltimore to pursue a doctorate in clinical investigation at the Bloomberg School of Public Health.
“My life is broken down into five percent teaching, 20 percent clinical care, and 75 percent research varying from clinical, epidemiology and policy located from Uganda, Nigeria and South Africa,” Shah said. He then proceeded to describe to the audience when he realized his passion.
“I met a sickly man ... who had to spend his days in the bathtub,” Shah said. While talking to this man, he realized that he wanted to help and be part of the treating process.
“My passion has always been in the international setting ... however, I am forced to be in the United States more than I would like to be,” Shah said.
He spends large amount of his time traveling back and forth from on-ground positions in Uganda, Nigeria and South Africa to Hopkins, where he is the sole doctor for TB in Baltimore City. When he is not on-site in the foreign countries, Shah said he works with a team of collaborators and on-ground investigators. Here in Baltimore, Shah serves the community for all TB cases.
“As of right now, I am the only doctor for TB in the city,” Shah said. “I Skype with my team here from abroad.” He then discussed the number of TB outbreaks each year in Baltimore.
“There are about fifty cases a year and 200 suspects a year. Though, there are 20,000 people with latent TB that aren’t being treated. TB is spread from people only with active TB disease and the vast majority only have latent infection and only five percent are having active infections,” Shah said.
When asked what led to his research, Shah explained his path to infectious disease.
“I learned a lot when working in San Francisco in the 90s when the HIV/AIDS epidemic was going on. I had a lot of clinical experience then and I really saw HIV impacting lives — making a cultural impact,” answered Shah.
Shah also pointed out the greatest difficulties being an international researcher.
“It is hard to do research without being on–ground all the time as I am U.S. based and have to split my time. There is also a huge limitation on resources and limited funding for public health,” Shah said.
Shah closed with some advice for Hopkins students.
“We need people that are going to help. Not thinking just as clinicians, researchers, or public policy people — but more multi-faceted,” Shah said.
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