MPH’s Jones Honored With National Pumphandle Award
Tim Jones, MD, has been named the 2017 recipient of the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists’ Pumphandle Award. Jones serves as Tennessee state epidemiologist and assistant commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Health Communicable and Environmental Disease and Emergency Preparedness, or CEDEP division.
The CSTE Pumphandle Award, which recognizes outstanding achievement in the field of applied epidemiology, is aptly named as a reminder of an 1854 effort to prevent the spread of cholera in London, England. Physician John Snow, attempting to find the source of a cholera epidemic, removed the pumphandle from a well he believed was providing contaminated drinking water. His simple action saved numerous lives.