Global Health Chronicles

Dr. David Auerbach

David J. Sencer CDC Museum, Global Health Chronicles
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1:09 - Background and Education

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Partial Transcript: Could you tell us where you grew up and about your early family life?

Segment Synopsis: Dr. Auerbach discusses his early life and where he went to school as well as his introduction to the Epidemic Intelligence Service program.

Keywords: Albany, New York; B. Roueche; biostatistics; chemists; D. Fleming; Delmar, New York; English Major; epidemiology; Internal Medicine residency; LA; Long Beach, New York; Los Angles, California; medical school; Minneapolis, Minnesota; P. Brachman; public health; recruits; scientists; Syracuse, New York

Subjects: Annals of Medicine; Centers for Disease Control (U.S.). Epidemic Intelligence Service; EIS; Legionnaire's Investigation; Los Angeles County Health Department; Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report; New York State; New Yorker; State University of New York; SUNY; U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

7:00 - EIS Training

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Partial Transcript: I'm just curious what attracted you to a move out west. As you said, you were pretty much an East Coast kind of guy.

Segment Synopsis: Auerbach describes why he decided to do his EIS training on the West Coast and his early work on a new disease.

Keywords: Atlanta, Georgia; Bay Area; blind date; cases; communicable agent; controls; gay; immune compromised; Kaposi's Sarcoma/Opportunistic Infections; KS/OI; Los Angeles, California; national case-control study; New York City; P. Thomas; Palisades Park; potential risk factors; San Francisco, California; Santa Monica, California; Task Force; toxic exposure

Subjects: AIDS; California; CDC; EIS; Epidemic Intelligence Service; hepatitis B; Legionnaire's; MMWR; Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report; New York Health Department; North America; pneumocystis; U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

14:09 - Case-Control Study/Training

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Partial Transcript: How did this all come up for you? It must have been pretty soon after you arrived actually.

Segment Synopsis: Auerbach talk about his training and the implementation the first national case-control study.

Keywords: Atlanta, Georgia; bath house; blood; case-control study; controls; F. Sorvillo; gay community; H. Jaffe; health department; Los Angeles, California; M Guinan; M. Finn; M. Tormey; Omaha, Nebraska; public health; questionnaire; S. Fannin; San Diego, California; San Fernando Valley; San Francisco; sexual activity; sexual contact; sexual histories; sexually transmitted agent; specimens; substance use; surveillance; training; W. Darrow

Subjects: AIDS; CDC; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; EIS; Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center; Los Angeles County Health Department; MMWR; Sexually Transmitted Diseases; STD

27:41 - L.A. Cluster Investigation

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Partial Transcript: You then became involved in another investigation that became know as the Los Angeles Cluster Investigation, which many now flet put some real credibility to this idea of some sort of an infectious agent that was being sexually transmitted.

Segment Synopsis: Auerbach describes how the 1982 Los Angeles cluster study, attempted to trace sexual connections among a number of gay men residing in California.

Keywords: Atlanta, Georgia; case-control study; connections; contacts; gay community; H. Jaffe; health department; infectious agent; interviewing; Los Angeles, California; partners; sexual contact; sexually transmitted; sociology; W. Darrow

Subjects: AIDS; CDC; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Cluster Investigation

34:46 - Patient Zero

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Partial Transcript: What did you start to find?

Segment Synopsis: Auerbach describes how the linkages between patients in Los Angeles led to finding a geographic center of a cluster of patients. A non-Californian man with Kaposi’s sarcoma was linked as a sexual contact for all these patients. This individual’s status as the “Out-of-California” patient was originally abbreviated to the letter “O,” which in turn was given additional significance when researchers read this as the number “0.”

Keywords: air steward; connections; contact; epidemiology; genetic molecular analyses; geographic center; linkages; Los Angeles, California; molecular biology; New York City; out of California case; Patient Zero; patients; sexual contact; single individual; specimens; Typhoid Mary; W. Darrow

Subjects: acquired immunodeficiency syndrome; AIDS; Air Canada; American Journal of Medicine; California; CDC; Centers for Disease for Control and Prevention; Cluster Investigation; hepatitis B; HIV/AIDS; MMWR; Nature; New York; North America; United States

46:50 - Pediatric Transfusion

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Partial Transcript: You were involved, I think, in working with pediatric immunologists. Do you remember any of this?

Segment Synopsis: Auerbach describes how one phone call from a pediatric immunologist led to an investigation into transfusions and blood products.

Keywords: A. Ammann; Atlanta; blood; blood bank; blood products; communicable diseases; donor; epidemiologist; etiologic agent; H. Jaffe; H. Perkins; hematopathologist; M. Silverman; mother-to-child transmission; multifactorial; opportunistic infection; pathologist; pediatric immunologist; perinatal transmisson; S. Dritz; San Francisco, California; toxic exposure; transfusion; transmissible agent

Subjects: AIDS/HIV; California; Communicable Disease Control; eryhroblastosis fetalis; hemolytic anemia; hepatits B; human immunodeficiency virus; Irwin Memorial Blood Bank; Kaposi's Sarcoma/Opportunistic Infection; KS/OI; mycobacterium avium; San Francisco Health Department; sexually transmitted diseases; U.C. San Francisco Medical Center; University of California; West Coast

56:37 - No Identified Risk

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Partial Transcript: Was there an interest in learning more about the donor?

Segment Synopsis: Auerbach describes a donated blood source investigation which led to a man who had no identified risk factors, and how this landmark case unfolded.

Keywords: blood products; case-control study; Castro District; donor; gay; gay district; H. Jaffe; intravenous drugs; IV drugs; M. Guinan; no risk factor; No risk factors; normative human sexual behavior; S. Dritz; San Francisco, California; sexual activity; W. Darrow

Subjects: CDC; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; gonococcal disease; HIV/AIDS; MMWR; Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report; Pneumocystis pneumonia; rectal gonorrhea; San Francisco Health Department

67:05 - Media Coverage

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Partial Transcript: Did you get drawn into some of that media scrum?

Segment Synopsis: Auerbach describes how an infant transfusion case led to a lot of media attention and misperceptions.

Keywords: A. Ammann; blood supply; blood transfusion; cases; communicable disese; credible; early pediatric; gay population; H. Perkins; Immunologic symptom-complex; J. Bove; Los Angeles, California; mother-to-child cases; pediatric immunologist; perinatal cases; transfusion-related case; transmission

Subjects: American Association of Blood Bankers; Bay Area; Blood Banking; CDC; HIV/AIDS; Irwin Memorial; Los Angeles County Medical Center; New Jersey; New York City; Yale-New Haven Medical Center

76:04 - Communication Issues

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Partial Transcript: Are there other aspects of the AIDS epidemic that you were involved in that we haven't touched on that you took part in?

Segment Synopsis: Auerbach explains the issues of explaining the epidemic to other health professionals, the general public and the gay community.

Keywords: 60 Minutes; And the Band Played On; epidemiology; gay community; gay scene; government budgeting; H. Reasoner; heterosexual transmission; mother-to-child transmission; Patient Zero; R. Shilts; sexual transmission; transfusion transmission

Subjects: CDC; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; HIV/AIDS; Reagan administration; San Francisco Chronicle; UCLA; University of California, Los Angeles

83:16 - Important Public Health Issue

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Partial Transcript: Did it ever occur to you to think a bit broader as to how this might unfold-- if this was going to potentially be a huge public health problem - nationally, domestically, internationally?

Segment Synopsis: Auerbach explains his sense of being part of something much larger, an important historical event for a young physician.

Keywords: 60 Minutes; disease; epidemiology; etiologic agent; gay men; gratifying; homosexual; Los Angeles, California; new disease; part of history; public affairs officer; public health issue; serologic test

Subjects: anti-retroviral treatment; California; CBS News; CDC; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Disease; Orange County