CDC Museum Iron Lung by Paida Matibiri
The CDC Museum tour was one of the highlights of this trip. The museum had an iron lung on exhibit that was manufactured by J. H. Emerson who got the idea from a concept by P. Drinker and L. Shaw of Harvard. This is the first time that I had ever seen this life saving medical device. This shiny, cool, polished metallic instrument was smaller than I expected but still a centerpiece on the CDC museum floor. I was surprised to find the inner leather bench and the foam mouthpiece still intact. The iron lung provided a polio patient with a negative pressure environment that allowed them to be able to breathe. Unlike a tracheostomy or ventilator which have positive pressure, the iron lung was less invasive and gave its patients better quality of life. As our museum guide explained, this is due to the pathology of the polio disease. It paralyzes the muscles, even though patients maintained good lung function. Therefore, the negative pressure environment created by the iron lung allowed its patients to breathe, eat, talk and increase their life expectancy. It is wonderful but also sad to know that this relic is no longer available or made in the world. It is sad because there are still people alive who use an iron lung and need parts and maintenance. However, it is wonderful because of the discovery of the polio vaccine and the efforts of public health officials and community partners to give immunizations throughout the world and decrease the prevalence of polio. 

Iron Lung Machine at the CDC Museum
CDC Museum Guinea Worm Disease by Xinyi Niu
The field trip to the US CDC in Atlanta, GA from March 15 to 17, 2023 was very educational. Thanks to our guides Dr. Cynthia Betcher, Faculty Lead for the trip, and Ms. Amy Itescu, ERC Coordinator, for their hard work and contributions on helping to coordinate this field trip. 

When visiting the CDC museum, our tour guide mentioned a disease called "Guinea worm disease (dracunculiasis)", which is caused by the “fiery serpent”, Dracunculus medinensis, and mostly occurs in low-income and remote communities without safe drinking water in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. There is no drug treatment, or vaccine to prevent it. 

People become infected with Guinea worm when they drink stagnant water containing copepods (water fleas) that have eaten Guinea worm larvae. Inside the human body, the female worms mature and grow, some as long as 3 feet. After a year, the female worm slowly emerges through painful blisters in the skin. This blister can form anywhere on the skin, but mostly forms on the lower body parts. This blister gets bigger over several days and causes a burning pain; the blister eventually ruptures, exposing the worm.

Symptoms can include itchy rash, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, etc. The infected person may immerse their affected body part in cool water, or may enter to perform daily tasks, such as fetching drinking water to relief from the burning sensation caused by the emerging Guinea worm. On contact with water, the worm discharges hundreds of thousands of larvae into the water, and the contamination cycle begins again. 

In addition to the pain of the blister, removing the worm is also very painful. Furthermore, without proper care the wound often becomes infected by bacteria, which may lead to complications, such as generalized infection (sepsis). 

People in many impoverished areas are still suffering from the Guinea worm disease nowadays. Therefore, a global partnership of public, private and government organizations has set the goal of eradicating Guinea worm disease from the planet by using simple filters, treating contaminated water sources and digging safe wells to prevent the disease.