Becoming a Disease Intervention Specialist: Do You Realize What it Takes?

By Burke A. Hays & Kelly Mayor, NCSD 

April is STD Awareness Month, and we’d be remiss not spend some time talking about the role that disease intervention specialists (DIS) play in preventing STDs and HIV. For those of you that aren’t already familiar with DIS, these folks are on the front lines of STD prevention. Part of their job is to locate the sexual partners of patients that present with a STD at health departments. As you can imagine, it’s an extremely tough and challenging job.

NCSD spent much of last year trying to raise the profile of these important public health professionals and help the public understand the job they do for our communities. In fact, NCSD solicited blogs from longtime DIS and encouraged them to share their interesting, and often strange, stories from the field. You can read some of those fascinating tales on NCSD’s blog, “STD Prevention Gone Viral.” But here we’d like to take a moment to talk about how someone actually becomes a DIS. We decided to write this blog because, while most people in public health recognize the pivotal role DIS play in prevention, many of them don’t realize how DIS are trained for their unique jobs.

During our investigation Kelly and I spoke with NCSD associate member, Kris Judd-Tuinier with the Michigan Department of Community Health, who started her career in public health as a DIS. Kris told us a story about tracking down a young woman who may have been exposed to a STD. Kris showed up at the young woman’s house and explained that one of her sexual partners was recently treated for syphilis, and it was important she be evaluated. Kris offered to take her to the STD clinic for testing. The young woman agreed to come with Kris to the clinic, and then excused herself to get her purse and keys. But she never came back. Turns out she took off out the back door like she was running for her life! Maybe she was afraid of needles?

But Kris is not easily deterred and she’s a sharp woman. She went to see the young woman again the next day, but this time she was ready! Like the day before, Kris explained the situation and asked the young woman to come with her to the STD clinic for testing. Again the young woman excused herself to “get her purse and keys,” and once again she bolted out the back door. This time, however, another DIS was waiting for her and the young woman relented to a trip to the STD clinic, where she received testing and treatment.

So, how do you train for a job like that? It turns out that the process is a long one with lots to learn and master. A newly hired DIS will generally begin their training by taking part in a series of online modules called Passport to Partner Services hosted by the National Network of Prevention Training Centers (NNPTC). These modules cover all the basics, like the organisms responsible for STDs, routes of transmission, treatment methods, and how to conduct disease investigation. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recently awarded funding for three Disease Intervention Services Training Centers who will be administering future trainings for DIS and NCSD will be working closely with the funded agencies in this process. Once the new DIS completes the online modules, they spend time shadowing other DIS and conducting one-on-one training with a supervisor before taking a one week epidemiology course hosted by a regional branch of the NNPTC. The epi course is followed by more shadowing with, and oversight by, experienced DIS. In all, the new recruit spends about six months in training and being intensely supervised before they are ready to strike out on their own.  

Given the intense training process, and all the weird situations in which they can find themselves, you have to ask yourself what keeps a DIS going to work every day. We think the answer is simple: these are folks with a serious commitment to public health and an awful lot of intestinal fortitude. They are so committed, in fact, that NCSD has created National DIS Recognition Day in October as a way to honor these incredible folks. But DIS deserve more frequent recognition, and STD Awareness Month is another good time to celebrate the contribution they make to prevention.