Beating Back the Devil : On the Front Lines with the Disease Detectives of the Epidemic Intelligence Service by Maryn McKenna

Beating Back the Devil : On the Front Lines with the Disease Detectives of the
Epidemic Intelligence Service by Maryn McKenna is an interesting look at the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) -- the field
component of the U.S. Center for Communicable
Diseases, better known just as the CDC.

Technically, the book takes a sort of double-pronged
approach of focussing on those who joined the
EIS in the class of 2002 -- plus profiling
some of the more dramatic and important cases
in its history. I'm not sure it really works,
but there's a lot of fascinating material and
background information on the EIS and how it works.

Basically, the EIS investigates any possible
contagious diseases. Usually in the United
States, when invited in by state health
departments, and also throughout the world
when invited in by the United Nations World
Health Organization (WHO). The EIS and CDC as
a whole are a vital health resource for the entire
world. By now, WHO may have implemented its
own version of the EIS.

EIS officers are the intelligence agents and
detectives of contagious diseases. When people
start dying of strange diseases, they're called in.

Bad reactions to Salk's new polio vaccine.

Listaria contained in packets of turkey breast.

Tracking the results of giving expectant mothers
anti-malarial medicine in Malawi, Africa.

Finding the last case of virulent smallpox in a
3 year old girl in a remote island of Bangladesh.

Trying to save children in a Rwandan refugee camp.

Looking for bioterrorism in New York City
emergency rooms following September 11 -- and
then working on the anthrax-by-mail that actually
occurred.

Battling SARS in Hanoi and Bangkok.

EIS agents are always on call to fly at a
moment's notice to an outbreak in Iowa or
Manila. Everybody in the world owes these
men and women a huge debt of thanks.