Epidemiologist Credits Texas Tech Education As His 'Foundation'

March 22, 2023 | By: Karen Michael 

An epidemiologist in Washington, D.C. is always looking towards the next threat, but that doesn't mean he can't also look back to see where he came from – specifically, from Texas Tech University.

Anil Mangla is currently the state epidemiologist for the nation's capital. He earned a doctorate in chemistry from Texas Tech in 1998.

“I'm proud to say my foundation was in Texas,” Mangla said. “My work at Texas Tech really focused on infectious disease because my work focused on HIV and TB.”

Ultimately, though he studied biochemistry at Texas Tech, Mangla went into public health, which he called "a little career change."

His initial goal of helping people by developing new prescription drugs changed when he realized he could perhaps help people to avoid getting diseases in the first place.

"But you know, the foundation of what I did at Tech was, I think, what got me to where I am," he said.

Mangla was worked working in San Antonio as the city's assistant health director. That's where he was when the COVID-19 pandemic began, but he was recruited to go to the nation's capital. Not only did he deal with COVID-19 in Texas, but he also worked on strategies to deal with Ebola, Chikungunya and Zika virus threats in the Lone Star State.

Mangla has also served as state epidemiologist in Indiana and acting state epidemiologist in Georgia.

In fighting monkeypox in the nation's capital recently, Mangla's staff was praised by the White House and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra.

"We have been a model for the country," he said. "We were very aggressive in making sure that we contained this as soon as possible."

While the Monkeypox outbreak began in summer of 2021, it peaked in Washington, D.C. about four weeks before other areas in the country. Mangla said his office shared its strategies with other areas to help them get ahead of the problem.

Monkeypox was different from Coronavirus, Mangla said, because it is a known disease that already had a vaccine available. COVID-19 was more of a problem initially because there was no known treatment, no vaccine and no idea how it was spread or even how long its incubation time was.

Preventing and treating COVID-19 "was almost like building the plane while flying," Mangla said.

By October, Mangla said he was confident that monkeypox was under control in his area, and he was already looking to the next possible outbreak. At the time, he was already working on what would happen if an outbreak in Uganda happened to make its way to the United States, so he was working on strategies to contain any possible outbreak.

Diseases have been on the rise since the 1950s, Mangla said.

"We didn't see much of this previously because there wasn't much international travel," he said, also noting that the speed of international travel through flights between continents means that viruses can become global threats more quickly. When travel was confined to long boat rides, it was less likely that a virus, or the person carrying it, would survive that journey and take it to a new area, he said.

But modern technology on a global scale can also help to fight disease, Mangla said. Because of the internet, scientists can learn about an outbreak on one continent, and they can prepare before a potential outbreak in other areas.

"Thirty years ago, we had no idea, or it will be too late to even understand those things," he said. With modern communication, “we know immediately, so we can be prepared."