Two months ago the White House adopted a new national public health policy for dealing with ominous threats of emerging and reemerging infections. The policy was based on a report called Infectious Disease—A Global Health Threat, released in September 1995.1 The policy was initiated by the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) and is known as NSTC-7.
The threats posed by infectious disease have engaged public concern via the media, the cinema, and many serious books and advisory pronouncements during the last several years,2-6 as well as a new journal, Emerging Infectious Diseases, published quarterly by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).7 The January 17,1996, issue of JAMA was a theme issue on the same topic, in cooperation with 35 other medical journals around the world.8
Last month's headline was BSE (bovine spongiform encephalitis). As we go to press, this month belongs to Cyclospora