EIS CDC

The Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) - the two year applied epidemiology training programme of the United States (US) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) - celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2001. Developed during the Korean war, only five years after CDC was established, the stimulus behind developing the EIS was a lack of trained field investigators should biological agents be intentionally used against the US population. It was, however, clear to Alexander Langmuir, the head of epidemiology at CDC and founder of the EIS, that his trainees would engage in a wide range of activities and help fill gaps in the US for epidemiologists with the skills and practical field experience to investigate and control naturally occurring outbreaks of diseases...

INTRODUCTION: Although historically a training program in applied epidemiology for physicians, veterinarians, and dentists, CDC's Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) has been attracting an increasing number of other doctoral-level scientists with prior experience and training in advanced analytic methods. METHODS: Using data from alumni records, we studied the participation of these nonmedical scientists in the EIS program and their subsequent employment. RESULTS: 160 nonmedical doctoral level scientists enrolled in EIS from 1964 through 1997; 135 had completed EIS as of July 1997...

INTRODUCTION: To increase awareness of and interest in public health and epidemiology, CDC initiated an elective in epidemiology and public health for senior medical students in 1975 and for veterinary students in 1982. METHODS: A review of CDC records to describe participation in the elective, to assess whether students subsequently enrolled in another CDC training program, the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS), and, if enrolled, employment status following EIS...

It is known that parvovirus B19 (B19) is transmitted to hemophiliacs by clotting factors prepared from human plasma. However, it is not clear whether B19 is also transmitted by the more recently used inactivated clotting factor preparations. Therefore, we investigated 69 hemophiliacs, mostly children, receiving only virus-inactivated clotting factors. 49 of them (71%) were B19 IgG-positive and 18 of the IgG-positive hemophiliacs (37%) were also B19 IgM-positive. In contrast, out of 73 age-matched controls only 10 (14%) were IgG-positive, two of them being also IgM-positive...

The epidemiologic field investigation is an important tool used by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to provide assistance to State, local, and international public health agencies. The Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) of the CDC is an ongoing program that gives physicians and other health professionals opportunities to learn and practice epidemiology. In the period 1946-87, EIS Officers and other professional staff based at CDC headquarters participated in 2,900 epidemiologic field investigations requested by State, local, and international public health agencies...

The Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) was created at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in 1951 as a combined training and service program in the practice of applied epidemiology. Since 1951, more than 1,700 professional have served in this 2-year program of the Public Health Service. In the decade of the 1980s, EIS underwent dramatic changes in response to the increased breadth of the CDC mission and the rapid expansion of epidemiologic methods. Modifications in the experience of an EIS Officer have resulted from the increased need for more sophisticated analytic methods and the use of microcomputers, as well as CDC's expanded mission into chronic diseases, environmental health, occupational health, and injury control...