Inside the Outbreaks: The Elite Medical Detectives of the Epidemic Intelligence Service

Front Cover
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010 - History - 418 pages

Since its founding in 1951, the Epidemic Intelligence Service has waged war on every imaginable ailment. When an epidemic hits, the EIS will be there to crack the case, however mysterious or deadly, saving countless lives in the process. Over the years they have successfully battled polio, cholera, and smallpox, to name a few, and in recent years have turned to the epidemics killing us now--smoking, obesity, and gun violence among them.

The successful EIS model has spread internationally: former EIS officers on the staff of the Centers for Disease Control have helped to establish nearly thirty similar programs around the world. EIS veterans have gone on to become leaders in the world of public health in organizations such as the World Health Organization.

"Inside the Outbreaks" takes readers on a riveting journey through the history of this remarkable organization, following Epidemic Intelligence Service officers on their globetrotting quest to eliminate the most lethal and widespread threats to the world's health.

 

Contents

Throwing Them Overboard
9
Killer Vaccine GoatHair Anthrax Rabid Bats
20
Pandemic Flu Purple Enteritis on Mars
33
New Discoveries and Mysteries in the Early Sixties
43
The Diaspora
56
Fighting Pox Pandemics and Special Pathogens
72
Eradication Escalation
91
Not Just Infections Anymore
109
Budget Wars and New Plagues
198
Entering the Computer Age
219
Unexpected Connections
236
Emerging Infections
257
Rough Sledding
288
Approaching a New Millennium
306
Full Circle
326
Into the TwentyFirst Century
339

Surveillance and Containment
126
Target Zero
147
The Year of Living Dangerously
160
Superwomen and Men of the Late Seventies
180
The EIS Legacy
363
A NOTE ON SOURCES
372
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
388
Copyright

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About the author (2010)

MARK PENDERGRAST is the author of four other nonfiction books: Mirror Mirror, Uncommon Grounds, Victims of Memory, and For God, Country & Coca-Cola."

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