Dr. Rendi Murphree
Centers For Disease and Prevention
During this lecture, Dr. Murphree will provide an account of her deployment to Monrovia, Liberia supporting the fight to stop the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak by providing technical assistance and subject matter expertise to the Monrovia/Montserrado County Health Team. Montserrado has a population of 1.3 million (25% of Liberia) and they reported >40% of Liberian patients and deaths attributed to EVD during her time in-country. The magnitude and scope of EVD outbreak exceeds any disaster experienced by our generation of responders. Dr. Murphree will share her experiences as they apply towards improving capacity for response to health threats in Tennessee.
Objective 1: Participants will be familiar with the challenges of emergency response in settings with limited or damaged infrastructure.
Objective 2: Participants will understand the importance of re-building healthcare systems for interrupting the chain of transmission for Ebola Virus Disease.
Objective 3: Participants will consider the difficulties of mass casualty management experienced by Liberia and use lessons learned to improve planning in Tennessee.
Dr. Murphree is a 16-year employee of the Centers for Disease and Prevention with assignments in Vectorborne Infectious Diseases, Global Migration and Quarantine, Epidemic Intelligence Service, and Career Epidemiology Field Officer Program. During the past five years assigned to the Tennessee Department of Health (TDH), she served in leadership roles during response to the importation of travelers infected with Ebola Virus, Middle Eastern Respiratory Virus and Chikungunya Virus, led state-wide activities to contact and track ~1,100 at-risk patients potentially exposed to contaminated methylprednisolone, coordinated Tennessee’s participation in a multi-state investigation of internal contamination with radioactive strontium following rubidium rb-82 generator cardiac PET scan, and led the study that documented zoonotic transmission of Mycobacterium tuberculosis from captive elephants to humans. Dr. Murphree recently returned from a 30-day deployment to Monrovia, Liberia where she served as the CDC advisor to the Monrovia/Montserrado County Health Team during the Ebola Virus Outbreak.