A History of Success: Investigating and Responding to Public Health Threats Since 1951
Milestone Investigations
EIS has nearly a 70-year history of success in training disease detectives. EIS officers step up at a moment’s notice to investigate public health threats in the United States and around the world. From the threat of bioterrorism during the Korean War era in the early 1950s to the Zika virus outbreak in 2016, EIS officers have been called upon to help CDC protect people and save lives.
![We Were There 1955 through 2016. Polio(1955), Smallpox(1966), Legionnaires Disease(1976), Ebola(1976), Asprin (1978), HIV/AIDS (1981), E.coli(1993), Anthrax (2001), SARS (2003), Ebola (2014), HIV/Hepatits (2015), Zika (2016).](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20201220094413im_/https://www.cdc.gov/eis/images/eis-timeline-950px.jpg)
A Snapshot of Public Health Achievements pdf icon[2 MB, 10 Pages, 508] highlights milestone investigations that improved health, made a difference in thousands of lives, and effected change in communities and entire countries.
![eis-1960-shoe-leather-150px EIS 1960 Leather Shoe Sole](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20201220094413im_/https://www.cdc.gov/eis/about/eis-1960-shoe-leather-150px.jpg)
Worn out shoe leather with a prominent hole worn through has been a recurring visual theme of EIS through the decades, a reference to the practice of EIS officers personally investigating disease outbreaks at the local population level, in all parts of the world.