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CDC Online Newsroom - Digital Press Kit - CDC’s 62nd Annual Epidemic Intelligence Services (EIS) Conference Begins Today: Showcases “Disease Detectives” and their Life-Saving Work

CDC News Room

Digital Press Kit

CDC’s 62nd Annual Epidemic Intelligence Services (EIS) Conference Begins Today: Showcases “Disease Detectives” and their Life-Saving Work

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Publishing Date: April 22, 2013

CDC Director Tom Frieden, MD, MPH, talks about the future of disease detection during his opening remarks at the 62nd Annual Epidemic Intelligence Services (EIS) Conference beginning today in Atlanta

Topics

• Outbreak of Listeriosis Associated with Imported and Cross-Contaminated Cheeses — Multiple States, March–October 2012
• Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS) Exposure and All-Cause Mortality: A Prospective Cohort Analysis of the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III)
• Increasing Number and Disproportionate Morbidity and Mortality Associated with Multistate Foodborne Disease Outbreaks — United States, 1973–2010
• Progress in Reducing National Burden of Invasive Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Infections — United States, 2005–2010
• Tri-National Outbreak of Salmonella enterica Serotype Braenderup — The California Experience, July–September 2012

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today kicked off its 62nd Annual Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) Conference in Atlanta, beginning a week-long conference dedicated to showcasing the life-saving work of its current EIS officers, or “disease detectives,” and welcoming the incoming class of officers to the two-year postgraduate EIS program.
The week began with opening remarks from CDC Director Tom Frieden, MD, MPH, (audio file: mp3  [25:07 23MB] | transcript ) who discussed, among other things, the future of the field of disease detection. Today through Friday, disease detectives will present their research findings from U.S. and international-based investigations conducted over the past year. Below are several EIS officers and their work that will be featured during the conference.

Conference Spokesperson

Tom Frieden, MD, MPH

Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
"For more than 60 years, CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) program has attracted and mentored some of the most innovative minds in health. This is an exciting time to be an EIS officer. The future of disease detection is advancing – it’s not only spreadsheets and shoe leather anymore, rather its spreadsheets and shoe leather combined with molecular sequencing and bioinformatics. CDC needs next generation thinkers and technologies to find and stop lethal threats before they spread in order to continue to save lives, protect people, and support America’s economic progress."
Biography
Advanced Molecular Detection (AMD) and Response to Infectious Disease Outbreaks

Outbreak of Listeriosis Associated with Imported and Cross-Contaminated Cheeses — Multiple States, March–October 2012

In 2012, an imported soft cheese called ricotta salata was implicated in a multistate outbreak of 22 Listeria infections. Two people died, a pregnant woman had a miscarriage, and other people were seriously ill. Not all of the ill persons ate ricotta salata, and the outbreak strain of Listeria was also detected in four other soft cheeses. CDC investigators strongly suspect that imported ricotta salata was the original source, and that it cross-contaminated other cheeses during distribution or at cheese stores.

Abstract