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District Four Intern Participates in Surveillance and HIV Testing
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Dorothy Bota (far left) with District 4, Ryan White Clinic,
and treatment center staff at the HIV testing event in
Fayette County.
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Dorothy Bota understands the long term impact of unhealthy behaviors and
how some choices can lead to negative health consequences. She is hoping
to influence target populations in Georgians to eat healthy.
The Georgia Department of Public (DPH) is helping Dorothy Bota get a
real life lesson on public health at the community level.
With only one year remaining before she graduates with a Master of
Public Health degree from the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory
University, Bota has had a broad range of experiences in District 4 in
LaGrange, Georgia. From collecting surveillance data to administering
HIV testing, she began her internship with a strong understanding of
public health.
Public health is the ability to assess the needs of your target
population to communicate and provide the tools, resources, and
education they need to solve their problems, according to Bota.
"I have mainly worked as an epidemiologist in the district," she
described. "The first few weeks I conducted several shigella
investigations that consisted of calling people who had recently
suffered with shigella. My surveillance included asking them a variety
of questions, ranging from 'Where was the last fast food restaurant you
ate at?' to 'Do you wash your hands frequently?'"
Bota found the investigation exciting, especially if most of the
patients reported going to the same restaurant or swimming in the same
lake around the time they were sickened. At times, she compared herself
to Sherlock Holmes.
Bota's district level experience also included assisting health
department staff to tackle its new HIV prevention initiative and
implement it on National HIV testing day on June 27.
"I called the 12 counties that made up the LaGrange district and
attempted to identify stakeholders and community partners who would work
with us to provide HIV prevention resources in the district," she said.
She administered more than 100 OraQuick rapid HIV tests and more than
300 attended the Take Charge, Get Tested community event. She was able
to share her HIV/AIDS experiences with stakeholders at the District 4
HIV planning meeting in July.
The Know Your Status and Update Your Status health campaigns for HIV
testing in younger generations have been very successful over the past
years said Bota. The goals are to promote HIV/AIDS awareness and the
importance of getting tested regularly. Most of all, it is an attempt to
engage the community to take ownership of their health and get tested
now.
"I now believe this because 300 people made a choice to know their HIV
status, with a majority of them being young adults. If a similar message
can be created to fight the obesity epidemic, public health will have
accomplished a huge task," said Bota.
As she completes her internship with DPH, Bota is confident she will be
around in public health for many years to help influence health behavior
and reduce risks by making healthier choices.
"I am excited to be a new public health professional because I bring new
ideas and strategies to the roundtable," said Bota. "Public health needs
out of the box interventions that are science-based to tackle broad
issues.
-Story by Connie F. Smith, DPH Communications
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