Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is a national public health institute in the United States. Its main goal is to protect public health and safety through the control and prevention of disease, injury, and disability in the US and internationally. The CDC focuses its attention on infectious disease, food borne pathogens, environmental health, occupational safety and health, health promotion, injury prevention and educational activities.

About Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in brief

Summary Centers for Disease Control and PreventionThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is a national public health institute in the United States. Its main goal is to protect public health and safety through the control and prevention of disease, injury, and disability in the US and internationally. The CDC focuses its attention on infectious disease, food borne pathogens, environmental health, occupational safety and health, health promotion, injury prevention and educational activities. It also conducts research and provides information on non-infectious diseases, such as obesity and diabetes, and is a founding member of the International Association of National Public Health Institutes. The agency was founded July 1, 1946, as the successor to the World War II Malaria Control in War Areas program. In May 1994 the CDC admitted having sent samples of communicable diseases to the Iraqi government from 1984 through 1989 which were subsequently repurposed for biological warfare. The organization would also prove to be an important factor in preventing the abuse of penicillin, which was used to treat West Nile virus in the 1990s. Since 1990, the CDC has broadened its focus to include chronic diseases, workplace hazards, and terrorism, including obesity, avian, swine and pandemic flu, E. coli, bioterrorism, and other emerging health risks. It is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, and was founded by Robert W. Woodruff, chairman of the board of The Coca-Cola Company. The Rockefeller Foundation greatly supported malaria control, sought to have the governments take over some of its efforts, and collaborated with the agency. The mission of the CDC expanded beyond its original focus on malaria to include sexually transmitted diseases when the Venereal Disease Division of the U.S.

Public Health Service was transferred to the CDC in 1957. In 1963 the Immunization program was established. It became the National Communicable Disease Center effective July1, 1967, and the Center for Disease control on June 24, 1970. In 1987, the National Center for Health Statistics became part of CDC. An act of the US Congress appended the words CDC and Prevention to the name effective October 27, 1992. The name CDC was retained because of its name recognition because of the initial focus because of disease control and Prevention, but Congress directed that the initial CDC CDC name be retained. It was renamed the Centers For Disease Control effective October 14, 1980. It has been named after Dr. Tom Frieden, the former director of the National Institutes of Health, who is now the CDC’s chief executive officer. The first president of CDC was Dr. James Watson, who was appointed by President George H.W. Bush in 1969. The current director of CDC is Dr. Robert J. Hochsprung, who has been in his position since 1993. CDC was founded in 1946 as a branch of the Office of National Defense Mal malaria Control Activities. It changed names before adopting the name Communicable disease Center in 1946. Offices were located on the sixth floor of the Volunteer Building on Peachtree Street. In 1947, CDC made a token payment of USD 10 to Emory University for 15 acres of land on Clifton Road in DeKalb County, still the home of CDC headquarters.