Events

Inside the Outbreaks: The Elite Medical Detectives of the Epidemic Intelligence Service
by Mark Pendergrast

Book Signing on Wednesday, September 8, 7:00 p.m.
Jimmy Carter Presidential Library

The stories you've heard are true. Somewhere out there lurks a shadowy group fighting to save humanity from unforeseen dangers. Ready to mobilize at a moment's notice, its members travel the globe, beating back catastrophes of unimaginable proportions. You may be conjuring up images of the X-Men, Fantastic Four, or the Justice League. Good guesses, but not quite. The group in question is made up of medical detectives, and it goes by the name of the Epidemic Intelligence Service.

Based in Atlanta and associated with the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, the E.I.S. was founded in 1951 during the Korean War, when fears of bioterrorism ratcheted up Cold War anxiety. Since then, E.I.S. officers – there are now more than 3,000 veterans of the two-year training and service program – have helped eradicate smallpox, identify AIDS and E. coli, and investigate post-9/11 anthrax-spiked letters. They stay on call around the clock, ready to spring into action and head directly into microbial war zones in far corners of the world. But while the work of the E.I.S. looms large, the program itself is hardly known. Thanks to Mark Pendergrast's new book, Inside the Outbreaks: The Elite Medical Detectives of the Epidemic Intelligence Service, however, the critical work of the E.I.S. is coming to light.

The E.I.S. "is indeed the most important (and effective) government agency of which you have never heard," writes Pendergrast. Its officers, who are typically in their mid-30s, go on to positions at the C.D.C., the World Health Organization, the Gates Foundation and various other public health agencies and schools. At this point, the group has served as a template for 36 epidemiology programs in 82 countries. And as the book notes, it is not confined to combating infectious diseases – at times the E.I.S. has investigated homicidal nurses, forced sterilizations and an itching frenzy at a grade school that turned out to be mass hysteria. It even extends its reach to address large-scale public health threats like smoking, obesity and gun violence.

Pendergrast's Inside the Outbreaks is a detailed account of the many largely unseen contributions the E.I.S. has made to humankind over its nearly 60-year history. They may not wear tights and capes, but those who have filled its ranks are heroes nonetheless.

The event is free and open to the public.

If you cannot attend the reading, but would like a signed copy of Inside the Outbreaks, you may reserve it below.