The appearance of a new disease is a rare event, as is the identification of a previously unrecognized disease. A serious new disease, whether it affects human beings or affects animals of economic importance, presents challenges to the public, to its government and to scientists. East Coast fever, which can wipe out a herd of cattle in three weeks, was first identified in Rhodesia between 1901 and 1903. It caused problems for various governments, it caused something close to panic in the Rhodesian public, and it presented a challenge to the scientists who investigated it in the hope of finding its cause and a way to treat it or to prevent it by immunization. The scientists did discover the parasite that causes East Coast fever and they did discover the tick that transmits that parasite, but no one has yet discovered a cure or a preventive vaccine.

East Coast fever appeared at an interesting time. Modern methods of publication and communication were in place, but they had not been in place for very long. It was the age of the telegram, when long discussions, detailed analysis and thoughtful letters had their final effect only after being condensed to a few dozen words. Although the foundations of modern bacteriology and parasitology were in place, East Coast fever appeared early enough to be studied by the first or second generation of bacteriologists, by the Cape of Good Hope's first government entomologist, and by one of the two founders of scientific bacteriology, Robert Koch.