The Epidemic Intelligence Service of the Center for Disease Control.

The Epidemic Intelligence Service's rapid access to disease outbreaks and expert support of local authorities in the understanding and control of such outbreaks has yielded valuable new epidemiologic information and time to time such major contributions as the solution of Legionnaires' disease.

Abstract

When we speak of innovative approaches in epidemiology we cannot omit the types of innovations in methods of rapid data acquisition that have made such acquisition more facile and expeditious in the very settings in which the epidemic events are occurring. The establishment of ani Epidemic Intelligence Service in the Center for Disease Con.trol (or the Communicable Disease Center as it was known in the 1 950s) was a natural outgrowth of the philosophy that created the original parent organization of the Center, the Public Health Service's program for Malaria Control in War Areas during World War II. The Epidemic Intelligence Service and its activities made major contributions to American epidemiology and epidemiologic practice in the past 30 years of its existence. Initially providing epidemic assistance and consultation to local health agencies and governments, it furnished the seeds for a surveillance system for many important diseases on a national scale (with international overtones) currently in effect. Such a surveillance system has enabled earlier detection and earlier control of disease. The Intelligence Service's rapid access to disease outbreaks and expert support of local authorities in the understanding and control of such outbreaks has yielded valuable new epidemiologic information and fronm time to time such major contributions as the solution of Legionnaires' disease. These contributions have earned the Service an international reputation and its basic concepts, initially applied to epidemics of infectious disease, have been applied increasingly and successfully to other diseases and health problems as well and in the context of the Center's newer name -the Center for Disease Control. The father of this innovative service, who persevered over internal political odds and staunchly demonstrated, by repeated example, its great national value, is Dr. Alexander Langmuir, creator of the Epidemic Intelligence Service. He has been honored in the past by the American Public Health Association for this contribution to epidemiology.-LEONARD M. SCHUMAN, MD