Annual Recognition Day Honors this Essential Public Health Workforce
Dalton, GA – Today, the North Georgia Health District, along with health departments across the country, honors the eighth annual National Disease Intervention Specialist (DIS) Recognition Day. Celebrated each year on the first Friday of October, National DIS Recognition Day honors the DIS workforce that is the backbone of all STD and HIV health department programs.
DIS are public health warriors and play an imperative role in intervening to halt the transmission of STD, HIV and other communicable diseases in the communities they serve. They track disease spread, reach varied populations, and link patients to STD testing, treatment, PrEP and HIV care. This infographic helps explain the critical work of DIS in STD prevention and is an easy visual to show the hard boots-on-the-ground work done by DIS across the county.
DIS are a highly trained workforce, completing an extensive training course sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Their skill set is essential to containing a number of disease outbreaks beyond STDs such as influenza, e-coli, zika, Ebola, and more.
According to Sherry Gregory, RN, BSN, district Infectious Disease Director, " The work they do involves
responsibility for investigating situations concerning individuals who have been in contact with communicable diseases, including sexually transmitted diseases and other infectious diseases, which could result in possible sources of infection. The work includes locating non-conforming patients of communicable diseases and persons with whom they have had contact. Investigation procedures involve contacting various information sources such as welfare agencies, neighbors, hospitals, work locations, restaurants and bars. The investigator is primarily concerned with locating persons who should be examined for acute infection of communicable diseases and making sure they are treated appropriately."
This annual day of recognition is being celebrated across the country. To view more information about DIS and how other STD programs honored DIS in past years, please visit the DIS Recognition Page of the National Coalition of STD Directors. You can also join the conversation today on Social Media using #DISDay2019.