Emerging Infections Sentinel Networks

In its 1994 monograph, Addressing Emerging Infectious Disease Threats: A Prevention Strategy for the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) called for the establishment of provider-based Emerging Infections Sentinel Networks (EISNs) to monitor and evaluate conditions that are not covered by health department surveillance and that are likely to be seen by specific kinds of health providers. There are currently three provider-based networks established through CDC's EISN cooperative agreement programs: 1) Surveillance network of infectious disease specialists, 2) Global surveillance network of travel medicine clinics, and 3) Emergency department-based network of academically affiliated emergency departments for research on emerging infectious diseases. The first two networks (infectious disease specialists and travel medicine clinics) are non-research…