Epidemic Intelligence Service

The Epidemic Intelligence Service is a program of the United States' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Established in 1951 due to biological warfare concerns arising from the Korean War, it has become a hands-on two-year postgraduate training program in epidemiology, with a focus on field work. It is now run through the CDC's Office of Workforce and Career Development. Persons participating in the program, popularly called "disease detectives," are called "EIS Officers" by the CDC and have been dispatched to investigate possible epidemics, due to both natural and artificial causes, including anthrax, hantavirus, and West Nile virus in the United States and Ebola in Uganda and Zaire.