Author Description

in The War Against Diseases, They Are The Special Forces. they Always Keep A Bag Packed. They Seldom Have More Than Twenty-four Hours' Notice Before They Are Dispatched. The Phone Calls That Tell Them To Head To The Airport, Sometimes In The Middle Of The Night, May Give Them No More Information Than The Country They Are Traveling To And The Epidemic They Will Tackle When They Get There. the Universal Human Instinct Is To Run From An Outbreak Of Disease. These Doctors Run Toward It. they Are The Disease Detective Corps Of The U.s. Centers For Disease Control And Prevention (cdc), The Federal Agency That Tracks And Tries To Prevent Disease Outbreaks And Bioterrorist Attacks Around The World. They Are Formally Called The Epidemic Intelligence Service (eis) -- A Group Founded More Than Fifty Years Ago Out Of Fear That The Korean War Might Bring The Use Of Biological Weapons -- And, Like Intelligence Operatives In The Traditional Sense, They Perform Their Work Largely In... publishers Weekly founded In 1951 Because Of A Mistaken Concern That Troops In Korea Had Been Exposed To Biological Weapons, The Epidemic Intelligence Service, Or Eis, Is The Rapid-response Force Of The U.s. Centers For Disease Control And Prevention. Young, Highly Trained, And Fiercely Committed, Eis Health Professionals, Including Doctors, Dentists, Nurses And Veterinarians, Respond Rapidly And Travel To Any Area Of The World To Examine Possible Threats To Public Health. Given Unique Access To The Eis, Mckenna Presents 11 Case Studies Of Epidemics, Environmental Threats And Acts Of Terrorism Eis Has Dealt With. Mckenna Puts Us On The Scene With Doctors Discovering The Beginnings Of The Aids Epidemic In 1980. She Tells Of An Eis Team That In 1994 Traveled To Zaire To Assist In A Cholera Epidemic Sparked By A Genocidal War. After 9/11, Eis Investigated The Anthrax Attacks That Were Spread Through The Mails. Mckenna, A Senior Medical Writer At The Atlanta Journal-constituti