CENTER FOR DISEASE CONTROL

Center for Disease Control

Center for Disease Control

Introduction

The CDC has primarily been a single government organization called the Communicable Disease Center until 1946, then Centers for Disease Control until 1970, where issues of prevention has expanded its powers and forced to open branches in all States and to reorganize into several jurisdictions, with each providing a national research institutes or health monitoring of offices throughout the country, and corresponding with the finest health agencies the world in collaboration with the WHO.

The origin of the CDC is primarily military. For the U.S., military institutions, for the protection of the U.S. Army played a pivotal role in health and particular of epidemiology, primarily through monitoring and studying the health of soldiers, then the epidemics as being used by bioterrorism or as a weapon of mass destruction.

Discussion

The trend towards prevention against infectious diseases has gained ground in the twentieth century in the country, with the fight against tuberculosis and a large campaign against yellow fever in Cuba started in 1898. Campaigns against sexually transmitted diseases have been developed during the First World War and then against the flu after the pandemic of Spanish flu of 1918 (which led to the creation of the WHO and has shown how the military could help carrying a dangerous virus on the planet).

Especially to fight against this disease during the Second World War in war zones, the U.S. has created a distinctive agency to develop tools and strategies tailored to outbreaks of malaria in soldiers (at home and abroad). This agency will be transform into a "Communicable Disease Center (CDC original name).

Main Tasks

The Centre is responsible for developing U.S wide surveillance. CDC gradually assumes operational missions of the network of communicable diseases. The Center supports the networking activities of the competent bodies recognized by the Member States, through the management of specific surveillance networks. In this context, CDC harmonizing the methods of monitoring, controlling and evaluating surveillance activities of specialized laboratories, to ensure maximum efficiency of operation. To encourage cooperation between specialized laboratories, the Center encourages the development of diagnostic capabilities, detection, identification and characterization of infectious agents that may pose a threat to public health.

Scientific Involvement

The Center provides independent scientific advice, opinions of experts, data and information on matters within its competence. The Centre seeks to have the best specialists for the practice. If, for a problem, the monitoring networks do not have the necessary expertise, the Centre may establish ad hoc. The functions of this body will be rapidly extended to public health. The officers play a crucial role in the development of vaccine against the polio and slightly later in a global immunization campaign which will eradicate smallpox.

Budget and manpower

The CDC budget for 2008 is $ 8.8 billion. The staff numbers about 15,000 (6,000 officers and 840 contractors Commission including the body) in 170 occupations. Other job titles of the CDC include the engineer, the entomologist, epidemiologist, biologist, physician, veterinarian, behavioral scientist, nurse, and medical technologist, economist at the health communicator, the toxicologist, ...