Among the many federal government programs that have been interrogated are a small group, but they are floors within the American centers to control and prevent diseases called epidemiological intelligence service – also known as investigators of the disease control center disease. As of May 7, the group received from colleagues was granted an exemption from the freezing and approval of the recruitment, and to provide the program this year.
The epidemiological intelligence service is a dynamic crises response team. Just as firefighters rush to burn buildings to save lives, the team specialists fill both locally and internationally to help reduce diseases. But first of all, it is a training program that has produced some highly training public health experts in the country who continued to work in local and state public health offices, academic departments and international health institutions.
We are experts in the field of public health-one of them is an experienced professor who served in epidemiological intelligence ceremonies from 1994 to 1996, and the other is an early professional trainee who was accepted in its class in 2025-2027. Although it is not clear how the administration will enact its new vision of the Center for Disease Control, we hope that the constant urgency in identifying and fighting the threats of infectious diseases – the essence of the intelligence service of the epidemic – is a national priority.
A rooted program in national security
The epidemiological intelligence service is a two -year fellowship for doctors, scientists and other health professionals. The program accepts 50 to 80 people each year.
The epidemiological intelligence service was established in 1951, just five years after the launch of the Center for Disease Control, in response to the concerns of the Cold War era regarding the biological war. Alexander Lander, his founder, was the chief epidemic specialist in the Center for Disease Control, and was often called the epidemic father in the skin of shoes-investigating diseases outside the office through widespread field work and participating with the affected population.
In a report announcing the establishment of the unit, Lanjir and his colleague wrote that one of the “problems that will appear in the event of biological war attacks” was “the scarcity of the coaches' epidemics.” They realized the urgent need for a specialized team capable of identifying and responding to potential biological threats.
The new section soon developed to address a wide range of civil health threats. In 1955, as one of its first main work, the program officers were assigned to investigate the outbreak of polio in children who started like the first group vaccination campaign against the disease. Within weeks, epidemiological intelligence officers helped track the outbreak of a few batches of the California vaccine called Cotter laboratories where the virus was not killed correctly. The accident has increased safety regulations in vaccine production and enhancing public confidence, paving the way to eliminate polio from the United States in the following decades.
The epidemiological intelligence service has led the way to address many of the most important outbreaks historically over the past 75 years. Starting in 1966, unity officers were deployed in West Africa to help in the campaign to eliminate smallpox around the world, which laid the foundation to eliminate the disease after 13 years. In 1976, the disease investigators were sent to investigate the Philadelphia outbreak of a vague dead disease. They helped describe what will be known as the legionnaires disease, a bacterial cause that is previously unknown to pneumonia.
In 1981, advice from an employee of the epidemiological intelligence service that works in the Ministry of Health in Los Angeles Province has led to the first description of a new disease that would become the global epidemic of HIV. Program officers have continued to help lead foundational studies on AIDS and prevent AIDS around the world.
Beyond vaccines and immunization
Even from its early days, diseases that vaccine and infectious could have been far from the only focus on epidemic intelligence. I have worked on various issues such as exposure to lead paint, cancer groups, famine relief, response to a hurricane, and avoiding food during the first fifteen years of the program, and its employees participated in a wide range of epidemiological investigations in areas that include lead -painting, the relationship of the cancer group with birth defects, and family planning practices.
These activities have set the priorities of the group of treating chronic diseases and the health of the population – the goals that also prompted their participation in disaster response efforts, including Hurricane Harvey, Irma, Maria and Katrina, as well as terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.
The epidemiological intelligence service also played a major role in maintaining the safety of food supplies in the country. It examines the spread of diseases transmitted by food, which helps to identify the foods involved so that polluted products are removed from shelves and the spread of the investigation results that benefit the food safety policy. For example, the officers in the outbreak of 1993 achieved Escherichia Coli O157: H7 associated with a non -cooked hamburger in several Jack in Box restaurants. Patients erupted more than 700 people and led to the death of four children. This also led to major reforms in food safety, including the expanded examination of meat and poultry worldwide.
A legacy of influence
The importance of an expert increased, a team of diseases of diseases only. Over the past few years, epidemiological intelligence service officers have responded to endless public health threats.
The officers of the program participated in each stage of the response of the Covid-19, where they conducted investigations into the fascism on cruises ships, in prisons and in many other settings. They investigated MonkeyPox in the United States in 2022. They recently investigated bird influenza and worked to help and spread continuous measles in Texas.
Perhaps the most important epidemiological intelligence legacy was building a global network of deep epidemiological experience. So far, the program has trained more than 4,000 diseases of the disease, and its officers combined have conducted thousands of investigations into the outbreak of the disease.
The impact of unity was global. He was summoned to investigate the outbreaks of outbreaks in six continents and worked as a model for epidemics programs developed in dozens of countries.
All these activities, at home and abroad, have formed health policy in decisive ways, which in turn protect people's health. It is increasingly clear that the outbreaks of diseases will continue to happen in the United States and abroad. In our opinion, the history of epidemiological intelligence service provides rich evidence of its value.
Mark Durkin Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Illinois Chicago.
Casey Locke, a health scientist at the University of Illinois Chicago.
This article was originally published on Theconversion.com
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