Infectious Disease Epidemiology.

Both authors were introduced to infectious disease epidemiology by Alexander D. Langmuir, and he taught us the principles of this field by example. We came to the Communicable Disease Center (now the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)) directly out of clinical training with absolutely no formal training in public health or epidemiology. Perhaps this was a fortunate happenstance; in any event, it is clear that we knew little and carried few preconceptions. Our training was truly in the classic mode of an apprenticeship. The Epidemiology Branch was confronted with problems and challenges, and we were put to work assisting Langmuir in dealing with them. We learned on the job, with little time spent on formal didactic training. Whatever was neglected in the way of formal training was more than compensated for by the drama of dealing with public health problems at a local and national level. Imbued with the excitement of investigating an outbreak, the power of the discipline became apparent. It was sufficient to absorb the methods as the investigation unfolded and to defer systematic schooling to a later time. Since this is a memoir, we will illustrate from our personal experiences and then draw a few generalizations at the end.