Deadly Virus Experts Join School of Public Health's New Brownsville Campus

After careers wandering the globe and only four months on the job, epidemiologists Dr. Joseph B. McCormick and wife Dr. Susan Fisher-Hoch have already made their mark on the public health scene in the Rio Grande Valley.

Drs. McCormick and Fisher-Hoch joined the faculty at the new Brownsville "satellite" of The University of Texas School of Public Health at Houston last January.

Dr. McCormick, who was named the James H. Steele Professor of Epidemiology, will serve as assistant dean of UT-Houston School of Public Health's Brownsville campus and will oversee campus operations. Dr. Fisher-Hoch was appointed professor of biological sciences.

One of the main priorities for Dr. McCormick is marketing the school's Brownsville campus to potential students and faculty.

"Public health is new to this community. We're organizing a marketing campaign to let people know what the opportunities are here," Dr. McCormick said. "We have hired three more faculty members and will be interviewing more in the coming months. It's a continuous process."

The school enrolled 13 students for the spring 2001 semester - the first semester for the satellite. Classes are currently being held in UT-Brownsville's technology building until the new building, scheduled to be finished in later this year, is constructed.

Also high on Dr. McCormick's priority list is increasing the capacity for more public health research in the valley. He wants to see the school empowering the community to look at their own health needs.

"We think that a school like UT-Houston will make its greatest contribution by having our students teach residents to evaluate their own health problems," Dr. McCormick said.

Prior to joining UT-Houston School of Public Health, Drs. McCormick and Fisher-Hoch returned to the United States after working in Lyon, France, for four years. Dr. McCormick served as director of epidemiology for Aventis Pasteur, the world's largest vaccine manufacturer, where he researched childhood vaccines. Dr. Fisher-Hoch headed the construction of a biosafety level 4 laboratory.

The couple met while Dr. McCormick worked at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. McCormick, who worked at the CDC for 23 years, was an epidemiology intelligence officer and later directed the CDC's biosafety level 4 lab. Dr. Fisher-Hoch stayed at the CDC for eight years, where she also worked in biosafety level 4 labs in Africa and Asia.

Both researchers have distinguished themselves in the fight against human diseases. Dr. McCormick served as a consultant to the World Health Organization in viral hemorrhagic fevers, smallpox eradication and AIDS, and organized the first-ever WHO meeting on AIDS in Africa.

Dr. Fisher-Hoch's work has taken her across the continents of Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. She has conducted studies and followed outbreaks of diseases such as Lassa Fever and cholera in China, Thailand, Indonesia, South Africa, Senegal and Saudi Arabia. She and her husband have garnered widespread media attention for their international work with dangerous viruses such as Ebola and HIV. In 1995, the couple co-authored the best seller Level 4: Virus Hunters of the CDC (Barnes and Noble, 1999, $7.95), a popular account of their adventurous work, which has sold more than 70,000 copies and is translated into seven languages.

Dr. McCormick's accounts on viral hemorrhagic fevers and epidemiology of emerging viruses have also gained popularity in the scientific world. Landmark data collected from years of epidemiological research were reported in important journals including the New England Journal of Medicine.

For now, Drs. McCormick and Fisher-Hoch are making themselves and UT-Houston School of Public Health's newest satellite known to residents in the Rio Grande Valley through community-based programs. Their flagship project - a valley-wide health assessment that began in Houston last year - has teamed them with community leaders, health care providers and public health officials to assess health needs and health care resources.

"We want to make this school a community-oriented one that works with people in the community," McCormick said. "Participating in community programs will give us a better sense of what the role of the school can be in the life and health of the valley."

Communication is also important to the couple. Even though both are fluent in other languages like French and Italian, they are currently taking intensive Spanish courses four hours a week. Their new jobs have taken them into familiar territory as they teach and mentor students.

Dr. Fisher-Hoch says the students have already made inroads in the community. She adds that both the students and residents need to be equipped with new tools in the quest for disease prevention on the Texas-Mexico border.

"Our students need to learn in the community and not just listen to us in the classroom," Dr. Fisher-Hoch said. "While the students use epidemiology to address important public health issues, our goal is to get feedback from residents so we can tell them what they can do to improve their health."

"We wanted to be in a community where we could make a contribution. We felt Brownsville was that community," McCormick said.

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©2006 Texas Medical Center

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