Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Review of Inside the Outbreaks: The Elite Medical Detectives of the Epidemic Intelligence Service

Inside the Outbreaks: The Elite Medical Detectives of the Epidemic Intelligence Service
hardtack avatar reviewed on + 2568 more book reviews


Remember all those disease outbreaks you heard about all your life? This book describes who tracked down the causes of those diseases and how they were controlled, or couldn't be. After signing up for 2-year tours in the EIS, MDs, DVMs, and Ph.Ds had to be ready to jump into a phone booth and take off to anywhere in the world to catch the 'killers.'

Not all the diseases were 'solved,' and not all the endings were a triumph of truth and justice. But all the stories are interesting.

There are so many stories that after awhile you might become jaded with them. So I recommend you don't read this book all at once all the way through. Have one or two others open and then return to this "disease detective" story after a break.