By Maria Elena Hernandez

Students from three universities, including UTRGV, traveled across Texas to get field experience in outbreak investigation and learn about the One Health initiative, as part of a cooperative course between UTRGV, Texas A&M University and The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. Dr. Christopher Vitek, UTRGV associate professor of biology, said there are different activities planned at each campus. ‘We’ll take all these different activities as if it’s an actual outbreak – an actual unidentified case – that they’re working to resolve,’ he said. Here, participating students visited the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Cattle Fever Tick Research facility at Moore Air Base in western Hidalgo County to learn how to identify disease-carrying ticks. (UTRGV Photo by David Pike)

Photo Gallery

RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TEXAS – Students from three universities, including UTRGV, traveled across Texas to get field experience in outbreak investigation and learn about the One Health initiative, as part of a cooperative course between UTRGV, Texas A&M University and The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.

“There are different activities planned at every single campus,” said Dr. Christopher Vitek, UTRGV associate professor of biology. “We’ll take all these different activities as if it’s an actual outbreak – an actual unidentified case – that they’re working to resolve.”

As part of the course, students talked to fake patients and learned how to communicate with the media.

The three-week class started its first week at UTRGV, with the investigation of a sick cow that led students to collect ticks near Rio Hondo and conduct laboratory work at the USDA facility on Moore Air Base in western Hidalgo County.

LEARNING TOGETHER

Marco Cabrera, a UTRGV biology graduate student from Roma, said he enjoyed the opportunity to work with students from other universities who shared mutual interests.

“I decided to take this course because I'm interested in the prevention and control of infectious diseases,” he said.

Texas A&M doctoral student Edward Davila said he was excited about the opportunity to get practical, real-world experience.

“I'm a very hands-on learner,” he said, “so I appreciate the fact that they’re going to take us out into the field.”

Some students may already be familiar with sampling methods and laboratory techniques, he said, but hands-on reinforcement is always useful.

“It’s something we’re all going to be able to take back and use again when we go back to our respective campuses,” he said.

COMPLEX PROBLEMS, MULTI-DISCIPLINARY APPROACH 

Davila, whose background is in public health, was also interested in learning about the One Health initiative, described as an inter-professional health approach.

“So you combine work from different fields and you try to solve complex problems, mostly related to public health,” said Dr. Dennis Bente, a UTMB associate professor, who started the course.

The fields can include human health, animal health and environmental health.

“I think the location of UTRGV is just ideal to address some of those One Health questions, being so close to the border. That’s just one of the many reasons why we wanted to work with UTRGV,” Bente said.

Students from three universities, including UTRGV, traveled across Texas to get field experience in outbreak investigation and learn about the One Health initiative, as part of a cooperative course between UTRGV, Texas A&M University and The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. Dr. Christopher Vitek, UTRGV associate professor of biology, said there are different activities planned at each campus. ‘We’ll take all these different activities as if it’s an actual outbreak – an actual unidentified case – that they’re working to resolve,’ he said. Here, participating students visited the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Cattle Fever Tick Research facility at Moore Air Base in western Hidalgo County to learn how to identify disease-carrying ticks. (UTRGV Photo by David Pike)

SEEING THE BIG PICTURE

UTRGV’s Vitek said the Rio Grande Valley has unique health issues, like people going to Mexico for medical treatment, and animals sold at flea markets.

“These are all concerns that are relevant to the spread of disease that could impact human and animal health,” he said.

Bente agrees, and hopes students in the course will see the big picture.

“If they can take one thing away, it’s how complex some of those issues are,” he said.

BUILDING ON LAST YEAR’S CLASS

This is the second year the universities have partnered for the course, and Bente said last year’s students provided lots of positive feedback about the simulation-based learning.

“They loved it,” he said.

Vitek said they have made some changes, after hitting a few bumps the first year.

“This is a new way of doing it, with these multiple institutions involved. But it was something that the students had never experienced before, and they really enjoyed it,” he said. 

Vitek said they hope to expand the program, possibly as a continuing education course with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or state health services.