Dr. Gail Bolan is the Director of the Division of Sexually Transmitted Disease Prevention (DSTDP), at the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention (NCHHSTP), CDC. She began her public health career in 1982 as an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) officer in the Respiratory and Special Pathogens Branch at CDC. She gained international experience with a three month meningitis surveillance project in Burkina Faso, Africa. Following EIS, she completed an infectious disease fellowship that included bench research on the characterization of a Neisseria gonorrhoeae iron-regulating protein that was thought to be a potential vaccine antigen candidate. In 1987, she began a life-time career in the field of STD prevention and control as Director of the STD Prevention and Control Program at the San Francisco Department of Public Health jointly with an academic appointment in the Department of Medicine at University of California San Francisco Medical School. Since 1997, she has served as the Chief of the STD Control Branch at the California Department of Public Health as well as the Director of the California STD/HIV Prevention Training Center. In these positions, she has consistently demonstrated a strong and enthusiastic commitment to the field of STD prevention. In 2010, Dr. Bolan received the CDC Jack Spencer Award, which honors an individual for a career of exceptional contributions to excellence in STD prevention characterized by outstanding commitment to science-based programs, continuous innovation, and profound commitment to helping people. Dr. Bolan earned her medical degree from the Dartmouth Medical School in Hanover, New Hampshire. She completed her training in internal medicine at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, and subspecialty training in infectious diseases at the Tufts New England Medical Center in Boston and the Stanford Medical Center.
It takes the work of many to ensure everyone has access to health care.
The Centers for Disease Control recently established four priorities for STD prevention: Protecting the future health of adolescents and young people; protecting men who have sex with men; raising awareness about multi-drug resistant gonorrhea; and eliminating congenital syphilis.
STD Awareness Month (SAM) is important because of the potential harm of untreated STDs, including adverse pregnancy outcomes, infertility, cancers of the reproductive tract, and increased likelihood of HIV transmission.
