Summer 07
Vol. 12 No. 3

Disease detective Sandra Gomez runs a Gram stain test for gonorrhea in Health's STAT lab at 1115 S. Braeswood Blvd.

Story and photo by John Perry

Cold blood awaits Sandra Gomez. At a little past 8 a.m., Gomez removes 44 blood-serum samples she stored overnight in the laboratory freezer.

She places the samples, secure in a portable test tube rack, on a table with some accessories of her trade: microscope, measuring droppers, micro plates, and an electric centrifuge that can rotate a test tube 3,400 revolutions per minute.

Even wearing approved Health and Human Services personal protective gear, including lab coat, disposable latex gloves and plastic goggles, she handles these crimson cylinders with care.

“We don’t know what’s in there,” says Gomez, a microbiologist I, warily holding a sample to a fluorescent lamp. “A broken tube, a needle stick, a splash in the eyes … and I’m infected.”

A sample could indicate the presence of spirochetes: slender, spiral-shaped, microscopic bacteria that carry a 600-year-old scourge. Syphilis.

A potentially fatal disease, syphilis has caused widespread epidemics throughout the world.

Health statistics show a rise in infectious syphilis cases in Houston. Gay and bisexual men and black men and women in Houston’s inner-city neighborhoods are being disproportionately affected.

Syphilis often goes undetected because symptoms are misinterpreted or ignored. If untreated, the bacteria will damage internal organs, such as the brain, nervous system, heart or liver.

“We need to put a stop to it,” says Gomez.

Blood will tell
Stored at minus 11 degrees Fahrenheit, a specimen must be room temperature for testing. This takes about 20 minutes. Before freezing yesterday, Gomez spun each tube in a centrifuge for 10 minutes. The vortex thoroughly mixed the sample to allow for accurate testing.

Yesterday, Gomez also ran a Rapid Plasma Reagin test on each sample, a preliminary test for the body’s immune response to several diseases including syphilis.

Gomez runs a Rapid Plasma Reagin test on a blood specimen.

For positive samples, Gomez administers the syphilis-specific MHA-TP test to confirm infection. Definitive results, including paperwork, will be available in three hours.

As part of the department’s cooperative response with Harris County to battle syphilis and HIV, Gomez and department microbiologists test blood samples from county jail inmates.

Three days each week, about 200 specimens are delivered to the lab.

“If someone is incarcerated for 24 hours or more, they’re given a medical exam that includes drawing blood,” Gomez says. “We tested 5,800 samples in February, including samples taken from the general population. It looks like we’ll have more than that in March.”

If a sample tests positive, the inmate or individual is treated. Caught in the primary stage, syphilis can be stopped.

“It’s relatively simple to cure,” Gomez says. “A shot of penicillin will do it.” People in later stages require longer treatment with antibiotics.

After a breakroom lunch from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m., Gomez finishes posting the jail-blood results.

Then she’ll go down the hall to work in the STAT (Latin for in a hurry) lab. Here, results can be yielded in 10 minutes for walk-ins at Health’s 1115 S. Braeswood Blvd. clinic.

Gomez runs Gram stain tests on male urethral discharge samples checking for gonorrhea and wet mount tests on vaginal discharge for gonorrhea and chlamydia.

Colleagues appreciate her dedication. “Sandra’s a top-notch microbiologist,” says Randy Maggio, a microbiologist III and 14-year veteran with Health.

“She’s responsible, thorough and efficient. When she’s on the job, we never have to rerun a test.”

Cynthia Turner, supervisor of the virology and serology labs, agrees.

“She’s an excellent employee,” Turner says.

Going mobile
As part of its community prevention campaign, Health has mobile RV units that go into high-risk areas. Employees interview people on the street, screen their blood and hand out information on sexually transmitted diseases.

Each RV carries a driver, clinical assistant, nurse practitioner, microbiologist, and a functional lab.

“We go to nightclubs and bathhouses and target high-risk individuals such as vagrants and prostitutes and convince them to let us take a blood test,” Gomez says.

The clinical assistant draws blood. Gomez runs a Rapid Plasma Reagin test in the mobile clinic’s STAT lab and can have the result in 30 minutes. If blood tests positive, the mobile crew can start treatment right from the van.

Some weeks, Gomez works the mobile unit from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. or from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m.

Named a national Hispanic scholar, Gomez graduated Florida State University magna cum laude with a biological sciences degree. She will enter the master’s of public health program at the University of Texas Health Science Center in August.

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