Keywords:

Emerg Infect Dis

EID

Emerging Infectious Diseases

1080-60401080-6059

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

2958021

09-0225

10.3201/eid1602.090225

Another Dimension

Personal Log, Stardate 42552.6

Kim

Curi

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Detroit, Michigan, USA

Address for correspondence: Curi Kim, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Detroit Quarantine Station, 2613 World Gateway Place, Detroit, MI 48242, USA; email: ckim@cdc.gov

22010

162368368

Keywords: tuberculosismeaslesinfluenzacoxsackieviruscommunicable diseasesparasitesepidemiologyanother dimension

Awaiting the alien delegation from Sarona VIII

To scan them for communicable space disease,

I think of history and can’t help but now speculate

If our ancestral officers in duty were at ease

At their own quarantining stations, earthbound ports of entry,

There watchful for all ancient scourges crossing borders

(tuberculosis … measles … influenza … coxsackie),

Assessing travelers sans medical tricorders,

But using only judgment and with epi skills equip’d

To help determine meaning in a cough, a rash;

And knowing what they saw was barely the berg’s tip

Considering all the infected travelers they didn’t “catch”—

Ah, the delegates just beamed aboard to be met;

Let’s see what interstellar parasites we detect!

Suggested citation for this article: Kim C. Personal log, stardate 42552.6 [another dimension]. Emerg Infect Dis [serial on the Internet]. 2010 Feb [date cited]. http://www.cdc.gov/eid/content/16/2/368.htm

Dr Kim is a quarantine medical officer at the CDC Detroit Quarantine Station, Detroit, Michigan. Her primary research interest is traveler’s health.