ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a short history (between 1989 and 1996) of the emerging infectious diseases (EID) concept from its formulation in the USA to its arrival at WHO. Our historical discussion treats EID as an ‘active’ concept, one that altered understandings of infectious disease in ways that mobilized widespread public health concern over new microbial threats and drove signifi cant institutional change in the scope and form of global public health surveillance and fi eld response.
