Sandra Bragg, Ph.D., of the Centers for Disease Control’s Meningitis and Special Pathogens Branch (MSPB) in the National Center for Infectious Diseases (NCID), was shown seated in front of a microscope, as she was reading a Microscopic Agglutination Test (MAT) by using dark field microscopy.
The Meningitis and Special Pathogens Branch is responsible for monitoring an eclectic group of bacterial infections and disease syndromes of public health importance. The branch is organized into programs on meningitis, which focuses on Neisseria meningitidis, Streptococcus pneumoniae, and Haemophilus influenzae, vaccine-preventable diseases of childhood, which deals with Bordetella pertussis and Corynebacterium diphtheriae, zoonotic pathogens, which works with Bacillus anthracis, Brucella spp., Leptospires, and “non-tuberculosis” mycobacterial infections, and unexplained deaths and other emerging infections.
