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Joanna Regan, MD, MPH, FAAP is a pediatrician who currently works as a medical epidemiologist in the Rickettsial Zoonoses Branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Regan earned her doctor of medicine and master of public health degrees at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She completed her pediatric clinical training at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. She joined the Rickettsial Zoonoses Branch in February 2009.
As a native of North Carolina, she developed a strong interest in rickettsial diseases while living, training, and practicing in a highly endemic area. Her current work focuses on teaching physicians in other areas of the country about Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF), a potentially lethal, tickborne rickettsial disease. Her other recent projects include an investigation of zoonotic diseases in the Great Smokey Mountains National Park, an RMSF prevention project in Arizona, and a chart review of severe and fatal cases of RMSF.
Dr. Regan also aided in the CDC response to Novel Influenza A (H1N1) by working with a team to conduct a serum survey in Chicago, studying the impact of the disease on Intensive Care Units, and conducting a national study of the fatalities caused by H1N1 in the fall of 2009.
The Rickettsial Zoonoses Branch is located at the CDC main headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. This branch conducts research, investigates outbreaks, and implements public health interventions related to RMSF and other diseases such as ehrlichiosis, anaplasmosis, Q fever, typhus, and cat scratch disease.