Epidemic Intelligence Service History

The Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was started under the leadership of Dr. Alexander Langmuir in 1951 to provide an early warning system against biological warfare and natural epidemics. Since then, the EIS has been in the forefront of disease investigations, both in the United States and throughout the world, tracking HIV/AIDS, influenza, SARS and other emerging public health threats. Those diseases, along with chronic diseases, environmental and occupational health, comprise the EIS agenda.

Since its inception, more than 2,800 EIS officers-physicians, veterinarians, researchers and scientists on two year assignments — have worked to combat the causes of major epidemics. EIS helped to restore public confidence in the first polio vaccine after a defective vaccine led to public panic, played a key role in the global eradication of smallpox, and helped discover how HIV was transmitted. More recently, EIS officers have studied possible links between disease outbreaks and terrorism and documented the obesity epidemic in the United States.