The Disease Detectives: A 75-Year-Old Network of Fellowship

By Jay Moye for the CDC Foundation In 1951, with the Korean War barely a year old and fears of biological warfare running high in Washington, an epidemiologist named Alexander Langmuir boldly proposed creating a dedicated corps of disease detectives, trained and ready to deploy anywhere a public health threat emerged. The program Langmuir envisioned in the early years of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)—the Epidemic Intelligence Service—would span chapters of American history. Now, 75 years and more than 4,300 alumni later, the EIS continues to operate on a remarkably simple premise. When something goes wrong—a new outbreak, a yet-to-be-named disease, a community suddenly falling sick—EIS officers get a call. Answering the Call EIS officers respond to outbreaks anywhere in the world. Dr. Eric Chow’s phone rang on Feb. 28, 2020. Within 24 hours, he was on a plane to Seattle. He didn’t yet know he was heading toward the first known COVID-19 outbreak