Epidemic Orientalism presents the persuasive argument that modern international disease control—its governance priorities, its financial mechanisms and its scientific language—is the product, not a by-product, of colonialism. Colonialism, and the empires that supported this practice, sought to define, dictate and control infectious disease containment practices to control trade and movement. As a result, contemporary international disease control will reproduce epidemic Orientalism, even when attempting to promote a collective coordinated response under mechanisms such as the World Health Organization (WHO) International Health Regulations. According to Alexandre White, the concept refers to a ‘way of apprehending and recognizing infectious disease threat that is based on the ways that the West has come to see itself in relation to the rest of the world’ (p. 2).