In early September, the University of Wisconsin-Madison welcomed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Wisconsin Department of Health Services onto campus to initiate a new partnership in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
With more than 6,000 students returning to live in on-campus residence halls - and mandated to receive on-campus COVID-19 tests on a regular basis - the public health agencies and the School of Medicine and Public Health saw an opportunity. The three could to work together to better understand COVID-19 on college campuses, build upon knowledge about the virus that causes the disease, and contribute to improved local, state and national response to the pandemic.
"The University of Wisconsin-Madison and Wisconsin DHS are strong partners and the goal is definitely to take this message and have the country learn from it," says Hannah Kirking, a medical epidemiologist and leader of the CDC-directed effort in Wisconsin, where, she says, Hannah Segaloff, a CDC epidemic intelligence service officer based at DHS, has served as "the important link between the federal and local public health and university response needs."
Kirking is also a Badger alumna.
