Student Spotlight – Kaylen Brzozowski

Even killer pathogens have a certain beauty to biologists. That certainly is true for Kaylen Brzozowski who claims C. difficile as her favorite.

A student in the Yale School of Public Health’s Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases and an intern in the CT-Emerging Infections Program, Kaylen is part of the C. difficile surveillance team. The bacteria cause mild to severe diarrhea, colitis and can result in death. Most infections are acquired in health care settings, but it is starting to emerge in communities. People who have recently been treated with antibiotics are at greatest risk as are those with compromised immunity and long hospitalizations.

It is a hardy, spore-forming bacteria, says Kaylen, and is resistant to antibiotics. Furthermore, the infection often recurs in older and high-risk patients. It has a close relationship with the microbiome, and especially affects one that has been altered by antibiotics.

The role of surveillance in this disease is to delve into patient treatment and search for clues as to how it was acquired and how to reduce the risk of spread. That is ever more relevant as the bacteria spreads into communities.

“I am so grateful for the opportunity to work at the EIP. Working in surveillance has given me great insight into one of the staples of infectious disease public health. I am also excited by the project I’m working on at the EIP this summer because it will help to further classify important characteristics of C. difficile infection.”