Alumni
Profiles of Success
William Paul Glezen, M.D.
Professor/Physician specializing in Pediatric Infectious Diseases
Baylor College of Medicine
B.S. 1953
When someone has a question about influenza outbreaks across the globe, they call Paul Glezen. “At this stage of my career, I am focused on clinical research projects at the Influenza Research Center here at Baylor College of Medicine,” he said. “Because of the avian influenza epizootic in Asia and Eastern Europe, I receive many inquiries to consult with various organizations; these include the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control, local and national news media, and vaccine manufacturers.”
Almost 50 years ago, Dr. Glezen experienced his first influenza outbreak as an officer in the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) of the Centers for Disease Control. “The Asian influenza pandemic struck during my first year, 1957. I investigated the outbreak of Asian influenza on Okracoke Island, one of the barrier islands off the North Carolina coast.”
Dr. Glezen joined the EIS after graduating from medical school at the University of Illinois in 1956. “I was obligated to serve 2 years in one of the uniformed services,” he explained. “I found an opportunity to apply for a commission in the U.S. Public Health Service and was attracted to the Epidemic Intelligence Service. It is a two-year training program in field epidemiology.”
“I was assigned to the Communicable Disease Control section of the North Carolina State Health Department in Raleigh, NC,” he recalled. “My main responsibility was surveillance of poliomyelitis. This was just after the Salk vaccine was approved and before the Sabin vaccine was available. I went into the field to review cases of polio, and we studied an epidemic of non-paralytic polio that was caused by a Coxsackie B5 virus, not poliovirus.” In addition, he said, “I responded to epidemic aid calls in Arizona (Navaho Indian Reservation), Mississippi and Alabama for epidemiologic investigation of outbreaks of hepatitis, strep nephritis (kidney inflammation) and sudden infant death, respectively.”
“The EIS experience was pivotal to development of my career,” Glezen said. After completing the two-year training, he did residencies in pediatrics and then qualified as a specialist in Pediatric Infectious Diseases. In 2004 he received the Distinguished Physician Award from the Pediatric Infectious Disease Society.
At Baylor College of Medicine, Glezen is a Professor and Head of the Preventive Medicine Section of the Department of Pediatrics and is also a Professor of Molecular Virology and Microbiology. In addition, he serves as an Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology at the School of Public Health at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. He is also an attending pediatrician for the Harris County Hospital District and on the Courtesy Staff of the Texas Children’s Hospital for Infectious Diseases.
His research at the Influenza Research Center includes projects on controlling influenza outbreaks and immunizing pregnant women. “I am the study chair for this field trial designed to determine the proportion of schoolchildren who should be immunized with the live attenuated (nasal spray) influenza vaccine to produce ‘herd’ protection or indirect effectiveness,” he said. The idea is that immunizing broadly will help prevent the infection from spreading to more vulnerable populations like the very young and very old.
The latter project involves injecting women with inactivated vaccines in the third trimester of pregnancy. Glezen said, “We have shown that these vaccines are safe and that they generate antibody responses that result in increased antibodies transferred to their infants in sufficient quantity to protect the infant for the first 4-6 months of life.” He continued, “Our goal is to find a vaccine that will provide protection of babies against respiratory syncytial virus infection that leads to hospitalization of ~120,000 infants with pneumonia/bronchiolitis each year.”
Dr. Glezen’s busy days are spent answering email inquiries; analyzing data; reviewing protocols, manuscripts and proposals; mentoring his younger colleagues; and monitoring influenza activity. He said, “Every day is different because influenza viruses are constantly changing.”