Dr. Kip Thompson studies public health and how diseases spread throughout communities. His most recent research on how diseases are spread through military operations is featured in the 2022 issue of Mind’s Eye.
The full story is available on the site now.
Here is an excerpt:
Service members who live in close quarters on base are at risk for rapid outbreaks of diseases like GI. To control them, quick detection of the cause is critical.
When Thompson was in Kuwait, his Preventive Medicine unit had polymerase chain reaction (PCR) capabilities. PCR enabled RNA or DNA sequencing to detect the pathogen of an outbreak within hours.
Using the system, he and his team were able to quickly identify a GI outbreak caused by norovirus.
“Because of that, we were also able to reduce the disease burden,” Thompson said. “The incidence of disease was down 10 fold compared to locations with the same outbreak but without the system we had.”
Congratulations, Dr. Thompson!