Forum on Microbial Threats

Summary: In its 1992 report, Emerging Infections: Microbial Threats to Health in the United States, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) pointed to some major challenges for the public health and medical care communities in detecting and managing infectious disease outbreaks and monitoring the prevalence of endemic diseases. In response, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Infectious Diseases developed a national strategy for doing so, and with the National Institutes of Health's National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, asked the IOM to convene a Forum on Emerging Infections that would serve as a follow-up activity for these initiatives. In 2003, the Forum changed its name to the Forum on Microbial Threats.