Woodbridge-native Audrey Lenhart is fighting to combat the spread of the Zika.
Former Enterprise Elementary School and Saunders Middle School student and Gar-Field High School graduate Lenhart currently works as a lead for international activities related to Zika for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The Zika virus has made headlines over the past year, and is the first mosquito-borne infection directly linked to serious birth defects, according to a release.
“I’m leading CDC’s international activities related to mosquito surveillance and control. We’re working with partners in countries throughout the Americas to improve their mosquito surveillance and control systems in order to better control the mosquitoes that are responsible for spreading the Zika virus,” stated Lenhart.
According to Lenhart, the need to fight the Zika virus is urgent due to it’s “devastating human and public health impact.”
While the CDC is working on solutions to the Zika virus, Lenhart stated that for now, preventing exposure to mosquitoes is the only way to prevent the transmission of the Zika virus
“Being able to lend my expertise on a global level as well as working here in the US to improve mosquito control is both incredibly rewarding as well as impactful, as it allows us to directly address the current Zika outbreak while developing improved systems that can better protect populations from future outbreaks of mosquito-borne disease,” stated Lenhart.
