CDC Calls Dr. Earl Long From Retirement
ST. LUCIAN Dr. Earl Long has been recalled from retirement by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Atlanta, to assist with control of the Ebola epidemic in Guinea.
There, he will serve as laboratory coordinator for World Health Organization and CDC testing facilities. His duties will include evaluation of new diagnostic tests for the disease, recruitment and training of testers, and ensuring better communication between the international laboratories operating in Guinea. His initial deployment will be from April to June.
Dr. Long has worked in 16 countries in Africa on schistosomiasis, malaria, and intestinal infections. He resides in Atlanta and remains active providing consulting services to various international health agencies. His work was recently recognized by the University of the West Indies which awarded him an honorary Doctor of Science degree in October, 2014.
In 1990, Dr. Long published the first description of the tropical intestinal parasite, Cyclosporacayetanensis and documented its diagnostic characteristics. He developed systems for disease diagnosis in three developing countries – Vietnam, Congo and Malaysia, and these systems were adopted in 14 other countries.
Dr. Long is an Advisor to the World Health Organisation and a technical advisor to the U.S. Agency for International Development. In 1990, he published the first description and diagnosis characteristics of a pathogenic specimen from an AIDS patient suffering from diarrhoea that would later become known as Cyclosporacayetanensis.
While in the Congo, Dr. Long conducted research on malaria, tuberculosis, AIDS and gastroenterology, working under conditions in which there was no cable-transmitted electricity. With the help of an engineer, he designed the battery-powered “E.A.R.L light” – the External Autonomous Repositionable Lightweight light, which became a valuable resource for field use.
In 1996, Dr. Long established collaborative research and training activities between the University of the West Indies School of Medicine, the Morehouse School of Medicine and the Centres for Disease Control (CDC). He left the CDC in 2004. Dr. Long also worked at the Division of Parasitic Diseases in the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID), where he conducted training activities and research on parasitic and other infectious diseases.