Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Contact Information Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 1600 Clifton Rd. NE Atlanta, GA 30333 GA Tel. 404-639-3311 Toll Free 800-311-3435 Fax 888-232-3299 Also from Answers.com... Human Papilloma Virus HPV How to know if you have HPV.

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On the web: http://www.cdc.gov

Mens sana in corpore sano -- that's really all it's about for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The lead federal agency for protecting the health and safety of US citizens, the CDC investigates health problems, performs research, and develops public health policies as well as developing and applying disease prevention and control. The CDC is one of the major operating components of the Department of Health and Human Services and comprises six coordinating centers and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. The agency has developed partnerships with public and private entities designed to improve the flow of information throughout the health care community.

Officers:
Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Administrator, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry: Julie Louise Gerberding
COO: William H. (Bill) Gimson
CIO: James D. (Jim) Seligman

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The federal facility for disease eradication, epidemiology, and education, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is a federal agency, under the United States Department of Health and Human Services (USDHHS), whose vision is to promote healthy people in a healthy world through prevention. CDC's mission is to promote health and quality of life by preventing and controlling disease, injury, and disability. The agency addresses a broad range of preventable health problems, from infectious disease to chronic diseases and risk factors to negative environmental effects on health. Most of CDC's seven thousand employees live and work in Atlanta, Georgia, the agency headquarters. CDC employees are also stationed in state and local health departments in all fifty states and in about twenty countries worldwide. CDC has facilities in Alaska, California, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Washington, and West Virginia.

CDC has three primary functions: to actively protect the health and safety of the nation; to provide credible information so that the general public, health care providers, and leaders in government can make well-informed health decisions; and to promote better health in all stages of life through strong partnerships.

CDC has always demonstrated a strong commitment to protecting health and safety. In 1942, malaria in the southeast United States was more common, so it made sense to establish the Office of Malaria Control in War Areas in Atlanta. Dr. Joseph Mountin, a leader of the Public Health Service, wanted to create a national organization to keep more than six hundred bases and essential war-industrial establishments in the southern United States malaria-free. At the end of World War II, Mountin created the Communicable Disease Center from these initial malaria-control efforts. The agency's purpose was to gather physicians, entomologists, and engineers in the battle against a wide range of infectious health risks.

Over the past fifty-three years, CDC's name has changed along with the evolution of its focus. The agency has maintained its commitment to the prevention and control of infectious disease, while building its efforts to address the leading health threats of the nation, including environmental hazards like lead poisoning, chronic diseases like cancer and heart disease, occupational illnesses, and injuries at home, on the road, and on the playground. CDC has worked to reduce the spread of AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) since its recognition in 1981. CDC has instituted important changes in treating and controlling the spread of this disease, including ensuring that the nation's blood supply is safe and reducing the risk of HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) transmission in health care settings.

Along with actively protecting health and safety, CDC provides credible health information to various decision makers, including individuals making personal health decisions and policy leaders making decisions affecting larger populations. Working with state and local partners, CDC collects and analyzes data to monitor health threats, detect disease outbreaks, and identify risk factors and causes of diseases and injuries. CDC also conducts research to identify what works in disease and injury control and prevention.

CDC's National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), for example, is the nation's most comprehensive study of the health and nutritional status of Americans. Each year, approximately five thousand randomly selected residents in twelve to fifteen counties across the country have the opportunity to participate in the survey. NHANES is a unique resource for health information in the United States. Without it, decision makers would not have adequate data on health conditions and issues, such as obesity, environmental (secondhand) tobacco smoke, and lead poisoning.

CDC also provides information to the public via comprehensive public health communication programs on such issues as diabetes, skin and colorectal cancer, HIV, and hepatitis C. International travelers turn to CDC to obtain timely updates on disease outbreaks in foreign countries and a list of suggested immunization. The agency also publishes guidelines, such as its Community Prevention Guidelines, to identify evidence-based practices for disease control and prevention.

CDC's third function is to promote better health in all stages of life through strong partnerships. The agency has forged relationships with other federal, state, and local health agencies, not for-profit organizations, and members of private industry who have an interest in reducing the burdens of disease, injury, and disability. CDC's strongest traditional partnerships have been with state and local health departments. Through the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program, for example, CDC is providing funds and technical assistance to fifty states, five U.S. territories, the District of Columbia, and fifteen American Indian/Alaska Native organizations. This program exemplifies how the combination of public health expertise in screening and detection, quality assurance, professional and public education, and coalition building can address critical gaps in health care needs. The program delivers critical breast and cervical cancer screening services to underserved women, including older women, women with low incomes, and women of racial and ethnic minority groups.

CDC has evolved from an agency focused on fighting infectious diseases to one that addresses a variety of health issues on both national and international fronts. In the future, it may need to address additional health issues—such as responding to bioterrorism, using genetic information to improve health, reducing violence in society, and closing the gap in health disparities among racial and ethnic groups.

(SEE ALSO: Communicable Disease Control; Noncommunicable Disease Control)

Bibliography

Etheridge, E. W. (1992). Sentinel for Health: A History of the Centers for Disease Control. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

— JEFFREY P. KOPLAN

For more information on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, visit Britannica.com.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), located in Atlanta, Georgia, is the largest federal agency outside the Washington, D.C., area, with more than eighty-five hundred employees and a budget of $4.3 billion for nonbioterrorism-related activities and another $2.3 billion for its emergency and Bioterrorism programs (2002). Part of the U.S. Public Health Service, the CDC was created in 1946 as successor to the World War II organization Malaria Control in War Areas. Originally called the Communicable Disease Center, it soon outgrew its narrow focus, and its name was changed in 1970 to Center (later Centers) for Disease Control. The words "and Prevention" were added in 1993, but the acronym CDC was preserved.

During the Cold War, the CDC created the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) to guard against biological warfare, but quickly broadened its scope. The "disease detectives," as EIS officers came to be known, found the cause for the outbreak of many diseases, including Legionnaires' Disease in 1976 and Toxic Shock Syndrome in the late 1970s. In 1981, the CDC recognized that a half dozen cases of a mysterious illness among young homosexual men was the beginning of an epidemic, subsequently called AIDS. The CDC also played a leading role in the elimination of smallpox in the world (1965–1977), a triumph based on the concept of surveillance, which was perfected at the CDC and became the basis of public health practice around the world. From the 1950s to the 1980s, the CDC led the nation's immunization crusades against polio, measles, rubella, and influenza, and made major contributions to the knowledge of family planning and birth defects. Critics have faulted the CDC for its continuance of a study of untreated syphilis at Tuskegee, Alabama (1957–1972), and for a massive immunization effort against swine influenza in 1976, an epidemic that never materialized.

The CDC assumed an expanded role in maintaining national security after the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, and the subsequent discovery of deadly anthrax spores in the U.S. mail system. Responding to fears of biological, chemical, or radiological attacks, the CDC initiated new preparedness and response programs, such as advanced surveillance, educational sessions for local public health officials, and the creation of a national pharmaceutical stockpile to inoculate the public against bioterrorist attacks.

Bibliography

Etheridge, Elizabeth W. Sentinel for Health: A History of the Centers for Disease Control. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992.

—Elizabeth W. Etheridge/A. R.

CDC is an acronym for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The center, which is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, is one of the predominant public health institutions in the United States and in the world. The CDC serves United States national security by monitoring the incidence of infectious disease in the U.S. (and around the world), and through the development and implementation of disease control procedures. As part of this mandate, the CDC is one of the few facilities in North America that houses a biological laboratory capable of handling very infectious and lethally-dangerous microorganisms such as the Ebola virus and Bacillus anthracis, the bacterium that causes anthrax.

The CDC is the pre-eminent institution in the United States dedicated to the prevention of disease, and is a global leader in public health. In addition to the Atlanta headquarters, the CDC has facilities in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and in eight other locations in the continental United States. The U.S. locations are Anchorage (Alaska), Cincinnati (Ohio), Fort Collins (Colorado), Morgantown (West Virginia), Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania), Research Triangle Park (North Carolina), Spokane (Washington), and Washington D.C.

Approximately 8,500 people work at the CDC in 170 occupations pertaining to public health research, administration, monitoring, and education. CDC personnel are also seconded to other international health agencies such as the World Health Organization and to state and local health agencies in response to disease outbreaks.

The CDC is organized into 11 national centers that are concerned with health care and disease prevention. The national centers study

• Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities,
• Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion,
• Environmental Health (that includes the Office of Genomics and Disease Prevention),
• Health Statistics
• HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), STD (Sexually Transmitted Disease), and TB (Tuberculosis) Prevention,
• Infectious Diseases,
• Injury Prevention and Control,
• Immunization Program,
• Occupational Safety and Health,
• Epidemiology Program, and,
• Public Health Practice Program.

At the beginning of 2003, the CDC enters its 57th year of existence. The institution was established on July 1, 1946 in Atlanta. At that time the acronym CDC stood for Communicable Disease Center. The CDC replaced another center known as the Malaria Control in War Areas. The former institution had been established as part of the Public Health Service to rid the southern United States of malaria during the years of World War II. As well, the center had assumed the responsibility for keeping the region free of murine typus fever. The establishment of the Communicable Disease Center continued these functions while expanding to include all diseases that could be transmitted from person to person.

The institute's founding director was Dr. Joseph M. Mountin. In its early days, the center was small and research and surveillance programs were still geared towards insect-transmitted diseases such as malaria. After an aggressive campaign of expansion by Mountin, however, which was intended to entrench CDC's position and value to the country, the center became the national agency for epidemiology (the study of the origin and spread of diseases).

The Korean War in the 1950s solidified the center's value as an epidemiological resource. The Epidemiological Intelligence Service (EIS) was created during that time, with the mandate to protect U.S. citizens from diseases that originated in other regions of the world. The EIS remains an important part of today's CDC, especially because of the recognition, in the 1950s, that biological warfare was an emerging threat to national security.

Two other events in the 1950s besides the Korean conflict increased the national importance of the CDC, and served to ensure that the funding of the center continued. First, a national campaign to inoculate children with the recently approved Salk polio vaccine led to a spate of poliomyelitis cases. A Polio Surveillance Unit was established at CDC. The unit quickly determined that a contaminated batch of the vaccine has been the problem. Their findings allowed the contaminated units of vaccine to be withdrawn from use, and the inoculation program continued with confidence. In retrospect, the continuation of the vaccination campaign has been invaluable, since it was pivotal in the eradication of polio, and since it instilled the confidence in vaccines in general that helped ensure the success of other vaccination campaigns. These outcomes also solidified the CDC's reputation as a disease-monitoring center of excellence. The other event was a large influenza outbreak in the U.S. Once again, a surveillance campaign on the type of virus that was involved and its pattern of spread helped future efforts to develop effective vaccines and inoculation programs.

During the 1950s and 1960s, the CDC grew through the assumption of responsibility for programs that had been previously handled by other government departments and agencies. Examples include the centers of venereal disease, tuberculosis, and immunization.

Beginning in the 1960s, CDC assumed an increasingly important role in the public awareness of infectious diseases. One important example occurred in 1961 when the institution took over the publication of the Mortality and Morbidity Weekly Report (MMWR). The MMWR publishes information on the number of deaths and cases of infectious disease from every state in the country each week. The availability of such detailed information has allowed the progression of some emerging diseases such as AIDS to be charted.

By the late 1960s, the CDC had become much more than a center for the study and action against communicable diseases. These activities had moved CDC far beyond its original mandate as a communicable disease center. In recognition of the center's changed role, its name was changed in 1970 to the Center for Disease Control. Further expansion led to a slight name change in 1981, to the Centers for Disease Control. Finally, as further expansion took the CDC into disease prevention, in 1992 the organization became the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Even so, for the sake of continuity the acronym CDC has been retained.

These and other efforts have contributed to national security through the preservation of public health. In more recent times, accomplishments of significance have included participation in the development of a smallpox vaccine and inoculation program, and the identification of the agents of several diseases including Legionnaire's disease, toxic shock syndrome, hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome.

In 1978, biosafety level 4 containment laboratory was opened in the CDC Atlanta headquarters. Then as now, this is one of only a handful of level 4 labs in North America. Other similar facilities are present in San Antonio, Texas, at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Disease (USAMRIID) in Fort Detrick, Maryland, and in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It is only at these facilities that highly infectious and lethal viruses and bacteria can be safely studied and treatments devised. At CDC, for example, the Special Pathogens Branch studies the Ebola, Marburg, and Hantaviruses.

In the present day, CDC provides a great deal of information concerning naturally occurring infectious diseases and, particularly since in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S., information on bioterrorist threats such as anthrax. The research and disease surveillance expertise at CDC is being harnessed, along with other national laboratories and intelligence gathering organizations, to strengthen the United States from bioterrorist attacks.

Further Reading

Periodicals

Epidemiology Program Office, CDC. "CDC's 50th Anniversary: History of CDC." Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report no. 45 (1996): 525–30.

Electronic

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "About CDC." November 2, 2002. <http://www.cdc.gov/aboutcdc.htm> (28 December 2002).

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "CDC Timeline." <http://www.cdc.gov/od/oc/media/timeprnt.htm> (28 December 2002).

A government agency headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, which is responsible for the control and suppression of infectious diseases. It offers a national information database on infectious disease and national support to the health care community by providing research and control measures in response to imminent health threats, such as epidemics.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (or CDC) is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services based in unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia adjacent to the campus of Emory University and east of the city of Atlanta. It works to protect public health and the safety of people, by providing information to enhance health decisions, and promotes health through partnerships with state health departments and other organizations. The CDC focuses national attention on developing and applying disease prevention and control (especially infectious diseases), environmental health, occupational safety and health, health promotion, prevention and education activities designed to improve the health of the people of the United States.

CDC Health Protection Goals

CDC is committed to achieving true improvements in people’s health. To do so, the agency is defining specific health impact goals to prioritize and focus its work and investments and measure progress.

Healthy People in Every Stage of Life

All people, and especially those at greater risk of health disparities, will achieve their optimal lifespan with the best possible quality of health in every stage of life.

Start Strong: Increase the number of infants and toddlers that have a strong start for healthy and safe lives. (Infants and Toddlers, ages 0-3 years).

Grow Safe and Strong: Increase the number of children who grow up healthy, safe, and ready to learn. (Children, ages 4-11 years).

Achieve Healthy Independence: Increase the number of adolescents who are prepared to be healthy, safe, independent, and productive members of society. (Adolescents, ages 12-19 years).

Live a Healthy, Productive, and Satisfying Life: Increase the number of adults who are healthy and able to participate fully in life activities and enter their later years with optimum health. (Adults, ages 20-49 years).

Live Better, Longer: Increase the number of older adults who live longer, high-quality, productive, and independent lives. (Older Adults, ages 50 and over).

Healthy People in Healthy Places

The places where people live, work, learn, and play will protect and promote their health and safety, especially those at greater risk of health disparities.

Healthy Communities: Increase the number of communities that protect, and promote health and safety and prevent illness and injury in all their members.

Healthy Homes: Protect and promote health through safe and healthy home environments.

Healthy Schools: Increase the number of schools that protect and promote the health, safety and development of all students, and protect and promote the health and safety of all staff. (e.g. – healthy food vending, physical activity programs).

Healthy Workplaces: Promote and protect the health and safety of people who work by preventing workplace-related fatalities, illnesses, injuries, and personal health risks.

Healthy Healthcare Settings: Increase the number of healthcare settings that provide safe, effective, and satisfying patient care.

Healthy Institutions: Increase the number of institutions that provide safe, healthy, and equitable environments for their residents, clients or inmates.

Healthy Travel and Recreation: Ensure that environments enhance health and prevent illness and injury during travel and recreation.

People Prepared for Emerging Health Threats

People in all communities will be protected from infectious, occupational, environmental, and terrorist threats. Preparedness goals will address scenarios that include natural and intentional threats. The first round of these scenarios will encompass influenza, anthrax, plague, emerging infections, toxic chemical exposure, and radiation exposure.

Pre-Event

Increase the use and development of interventions known to prevent human illness from chemical, biological, radiological agents, and naturally occurring health threats.

Decrease the time needed to classify health events as terrorism or naturally occurring in partnership with other agencies.

Decrease the time needed to detect and report chemical, biological, radiological agents in tissue, food or environmental samples that cause threats to the public’s health.

Improve the timeliness and accuracy of communications regarding threats to the public’s health.

Event

Decrease the time to identify causes, risk factors, and appropriate interventions for those affected by threats to the public’s health.

Decrease the time needed to provide countermeasures and health guidance to those affected by threats to the public’s health.

Post-Event

Decrease the time needed to restore health services and environmental safety to pre-event levels.

Improve the long-term follow-up provided to those affected by threats to the public’s health.

Decrease the time needed to implement recommendations from after-action reports following threats to the public’s health.

Healthy People in a Healthy World

People around the world will live safer, healthier and longer lives through health promotion, health protection, and health diplomacy.

Health Promotion: Global health will improve by sharing knowledge, tools and other resources with people and partners around the world.

Health Protection: Americans at home and abroad will be protected from health threats through a transnational prevention, detection and response network.

Health Diplomacy: CDC and the United States Government will be a trusted and effective resource for health development and health protection around the globe.

CDC Structure

CDC is one of the major operating components of the Department of Health and Human Services. CDC's major organizational components respond individually in their areas of expertise and pool their resources and expertise on cross-cutting issues and specific health threats. The agency comprises these major organizational components:

Office of the Director manages and directs the activities of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; provides overall direction to, and coordination of, the scientific/medical programs of CDC; and provides leadership, coordination, and assessment of administrative management activities.

The CDC is under the direction of Dr. Julie Louise Gerberding, M.D., M.P.H. Dr. Gerberding has been the director of the CDC since July 2002.^[1]

Coordinating Center for Environmental Health and Injury Prevention

National Center for Environmental Health/ Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (NCEH-ATSDR) provides national leadership in preventing and controlling disease and death resulting from the interactions between people and their environment.

CDC performs many of the administrative functions for the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), a sister agency of CDC, and one of eight federal public health agencies within the Department of Health and Human Services. The Director of CDC also serves as the Administrator of ATSDR.

National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC) prevents death and disability from non occupational injuries, including those that are unintentional and those that result from violence.

Coordinating Center for Health Information and Services

National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) provides statistical information that guides actions and policies to improve the health of the American people.

National Center for Public Health Informatics (NCPHI) provides national leadership in the application of information technology in the pursuit of public health.

National Center for Health Marketing (NCHM) provides national leadership in health marketing science and in its application to impact public health.

Coordinating Center for Health Promotion

National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities (NCBDDD) provides national leadership for preventing birth defects and developmental disabilities and for improving the health and wellness of people with disabilities.

National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (NCCDPHP) prevents premature death and disability from chronic diseases and promotes healthy personal behaviors.

National Office of Public Health Genomics provides national leadership in fostering understanding of human genomic discoveries and how they can be used to improve health and prevent disease.

Coordinating Center for Infectious Diseases

National Center for Infectious Diseases (NCID) prevents illness, disability, and death caused by infectious diseases in the United States and around the world.

National Immunization Program (NIP) prevents disease, disability, and death from vaccine-preventable diseases in children and adults.

National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention (NCHSTP) provides national leadership in preventing and controlling human immunodeficiency virus infection, sexually transmitted diseases, and tuberculosis.

Coordinating Office for Global Health provides national leadership, coordination, and support for CDC’s global health activities in collaboration with CDC’s global health partners.

Coordinating Office for Terrorism Preparedness & Emergency Response provides strategic direction for the Agency to support terrorism preparedness and emergency response efforts.

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)

NIOSH ensures safety and health for all people in the workplace through research and prevention.

CDC Workforce

CDC’s budget for 2006 is $8.5 billion. Today the staff numbers nearly 15,000 (including 6,000 contractors and 840 Commissioned Corps officers) in 170 occupations. Engineers, entomologists, epidemiologists, biologists, physicians, veterinarians, behaviorial scientists, nurses, medical technologists, economists, health communicators, toxicologists, chemists, computer scientists, and statisticians—to name only a few—each are dedicated to the pursuit of public health.

CDC headquarters in DeKalb County, Georgia as seen from Emory University

CDC is headquartered in DeKalb County, Georgia, but it has 10 other locations in the United States and Puerto Rico. Those locations include Anchorage, Alaska; Cincinnati, Ohio; Fort Collins, Colorado; Hyattsville, Maryland; Morgantown, West Virginia; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Research Triangle Park, North Carolina; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Spokane, Washington; and Washington, D.C. In addition, CDC staff are located in state and local health agencies, quarantine/border health offices at ports of entry, and 45 countries around the world, from Angola to Zimbabwe.

The work force is diverse and well qualified. More than a third of CDC’s employees are members of a racial or ethnic minority group, and women account for nearly 60 percent of CDC’s workforce. Nearly 40 percent of employees have a master’s degree; 25 percent have a Ph.D.; and 10 percent have medical degrees. The average age of a CDC worker is 46.

The CDC campus in Atlanta houses facilities for the research of extremely dangerous biological agents. This setting was well represented in the Dustin Hoffman film Outbreak, although the location depicted in the film was supposed to be the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases bio-research facility. The CDC labs also figure prominently in the book "The Demon in the Freezer" by Richard Preston and "Virus Hunter" by C.J. Peters, former head of the Special Pathogens Branch at the CDC.

The CDC also conducts the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, the world’s largest, on-going telephone health survey system.^[2]

CDC Timeline

CDC Timeline

CDC: Then and Now

On July 1, 1946, the Communicable Disease Center was established. Its founder was a visionary leader in public health, Dr. Joseph Mountin. The new agency, which was established the year after World War II ended, descended from the wartime agency, Malaria Control in War Areas. Established as a small branch of the U.S. Public Health Service, the CDC was located on the sixth floor of the Volunteer Building on Peachtree Street in Atlanta, Georgia, hundreds of miles from Washington, D.C., and other federal agencies. The organization took root deep in the South, once the heart of the malaria zone.

CDC initially focused on fighting malaria by killing mosquitoes. In fact, malaria was by far CDC’s most absorbing interest; during the first year of operations, 59 percent of its personnel were engaged in this effort. Among its 369 employees, the key jobs at CDC were originally entomology and engineering. In 1946, there were only seven medical officers on duty.

Back then, CDC’s budget was about $1 million. The insecticide DDT, available since 1943, was the primary weapon in the malaria fight, and CDC’s early challenges included obtaining enough trucks, sprayers, and shovels to wage the war on mosquitoes. In CDC’s initial years, more than six and a half million homes were sprayed, and an early organization chart was even drawn—somewhat fancifully—in the shape of a mosquito.

But CDC was soon to spread its wings. CDC founder Dr. Joseph Mountin continued to advocate for public health issues and to push for CDC to extend its responsibilities to many other communicable diseases. In 1947, CDC made a token payment of $10 to Emory University for 15 acres of land on Clifton Road in Atlanta, the home of CDC headquarters today. CDC employees collected the money to make the purchase. The benefactor behind the “gift” was Robert Woodruff, Chairman of the Board of the Coca-Cola Company. Woodruff had a long-time interest in malaria control; it had been a problem in areas where he went hunting. As you can see, malaria was the catalyst for the agency’s creation. The scene was now set for CDC to expand its home, its mission, and its reach.

Today, CDC is the nation's premier health promotion, prevention, and preparedness agency and a global leader in public health. During the past 60 years, its name has changed to reflect its more complex mission. While it’s still known by the initials CDC, the agency’s name today is Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In the six decades since its founding, CDC has grown dramatically: in staff, budget and mission. The world authority on communicable disease, CDC has broadened its focus to include chronic diseases, disabilities, injury control, workplace hazards, environmental health threats, and terrorism preparedness. Whereas malaria was once considered a threat to the country’s security, new threats have now emerged. CDC tackles emerging diseases and other health risks, including birth defects, West Nile virus, obesity, avian and pandemic flu, E. coli, auto wrecks, and bioterrorism, to name a few.

CDC remains committed to its vision of healthy people in a healthy world. Part of the Department of Health and Human Services, CDC applies research and findings to improve people’s daily lives and responds to health emergencies, and in 60 years, CDC has grown in size and stature, scope and science, and reputation and reach. Memories have been built and milestones achieved. World-class scientists work in world-class facilities. But while much has changed since 1946, the heart of CDC is still its people—dedicated and diligent, persevering and professional, making a difference in lives around the world.

The CDC is one of the few Bio-Safety Level 4 laboratories in the country, as well as one of only two "official" repositories of smallpox in the world. The second smallpox stores reside at the State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology VECTOR in the Russian Federation, though it is possible that other countries may have obtained samples during the collapse of the Soviet Union.

On September 6, 2007, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported suicide rate in American adolescents (especially girls, 10 to 24 years old) increased 8% (2003 to 2004), the largest jump in 15 years. Specifically, in 2004 - 4,599 suicides in Americans ages 10 to 24, up from 4,232 in 2003, for a rate of 7.32 per 100,000 people that age. Before, the rate dropped to 6.78 per 100,000 in 2003 from 9.48 per 100,000 in 1990. The findings also reported that antidepressant drugs reduced suicide risk. Psychiatrists found that the increase is due to the decline in prescriptions of antidepressant drugs like Prozac to young people since 2003, leaving more cases of serious depression untreated. In a December 2006 study, The American Journal of Psychiatry said that a decrease in antidepressant prescriptions to minors of just a few percentage points coincided with a 14 percent increase in suicides in the United States; in the Netherlands, the suicide rate was 50% up, upon prescription drop.^[3]

CDC Data and Survey Systems

• CDC Scientifc Data, Surveillance, Health Statistics, and Laboratory Information.^[4]
• Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System.^[5]
• Mortality Medical Data System.^[6]

CDC Publications

• Comprehensive list of publications and products^[7]

• State of CDC report^[8]

• CDC Programs in Brief^[9]

• Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report^[10]

• Emerging Infectious Disease Journal^[11]

Further Information

• CDC Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratory -- Atlanta, Georgia

Notes and references

1. ^ The CDC Director - Julie Gerberding, M.D., M.P.H.
2. ^ Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. CDC: National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Retrieved on 2006-08-05.
3. ^ New York Times, Suicide Rises in Youth; Antidepressant Debate Looms
4. ^ CDC Data and Statistics. CDC - National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Retrieved on 2006-08-10.
5. ^ Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. CDC - National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Retrieved on 2006-08-10.
6. ^ NCHS - Mortality Data - About the Mortality Medical Data System. CDC - National Center for Health Statistics. Retrieved on 2007-01-09.
7. ^ CDC - Publications. CDC - National Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved on 2006-08-10.
8. ^ State of CDC Report: Fiscal Year 2005. CDC - National Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved on 2006-08-10.
9. ^ Programs In Brief: Home Page. CDC - National Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved on 2006-08-10.
10. ^ Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report - MMWR. CDC - National Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved on 2006-08-10.
11. ^ Emerging Infectious Diseases. CDC - National Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved on 2006-08-10.

See also

• European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC)

External links

• The CDC Homepage
• CDC media relations site
• CDC Health Topics A to Z
• CDC Public Health Image Library
• CDC Global Communications Center
• Sex and the CDC, The Indypendent

The CDC Foundation operates independently from CDC as a private, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization incorporated in the State of Georgia. The creation of the Foundation was authorized by section 399F of the Public Health Service Act to support the mission of CDC in partnership with the private sector, including organizations, foundations, businesses, educational groups, and individuals.

• Centers For Disease Control And Prevention Meeting Notices and Rule Changes from The Federal Register RSS Feed

Agencies under the United States Department of Health and Human Services

Secretary of Health and Human Services Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families • Administration on Aging  • Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality  • Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention  • Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services  • Food and Drug Administration  • Health Resources and Services Administration  • Indian Health Service  • National Institutes of Health  • Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration

Atlanta history

1861 Atlanta in the Civil War • 1864 Atlanta Campaign • 1868 Georgia State Capitol moved • 1881 International Cotton Exposition • 1888 Coca-Cola invented • 1890 Grady Memorial Hospital opens • 1895 Cotton States and International Exposition • 1915 Leo Frank lynching • 1926 Candler Field opens • 1935 Techwood Homes opens • 1946 CDC opens • 1960s American civil rights movement • 1966 Atlanta Braves and Atlanta Falcons begin play • 1971 MARTA opens • 1980 Hartsfield Airport opens • 1988 Democratic National Convention • 1989 Underground Atlanta reopens • 1992 Georgia Dome opens • 1994 Super Bowl XXVIII • 1995 Braves win World Series• 1996 Centennial Olympics • 2000 Super Bowl XXXIV

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