CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is one of the primary public health institutions in the world. CDC is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with facilities at 9 other sites in the United States. The centers are the focus of the United States government efforts to develop and implement prevention and control strategies for diseases, including those of microbiological origin.
The CDC is home to 11 national centers that address various aspects of health care and disease prevention. Examples of the centers include the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health promotion, National Center for Infectious Diseases, National Immunization Program, and the National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention.
CDC was originally the acronym for The Communicable Disease Center. This center was a redesignation of an existing facility known as the Malaria Control in War Areas. The malaria control effort had been mandated to eradicate
malaria from the southern United States during World War II. The Communicable Disease Center began operations in Atlanta on July 1, 1946, under the direction of Dr. Joseph M. Mountin.
Initially, the center was very small and was staffed mainly by engineers and entomologists (scientists who study insects). But under Mountin's direction, an expansion program was begun with the intent of making the center the predominant United States center of epidemiology. By 1950 the center had opened a disease surveillance unit that remains a cornerstone of CDC's operations today. Indeed, during the Korean War, the Epidemiological Intelligence Service was created, to protect the United States from the immigration of disease causing microorganisms.
Two events in the 1950s brought the CDC to national prominence and assured the ongoing funding of the center. The first event was the outbreak of poliomyelitis in children who had received an inoculation with the recently approved Salk polio vaccine. A Polio Surveillance Unit that was established at CDC confirmed the cause of the cases to be due to a contaminated batch of the vaccine. With CDC's help, the problem was solved and the national polio vaccination program recommenced. The other event was a massive outbreak of influenzae. Data collected by CDC helped pave the way for the development of influenza vaccines and inoculation programs.
In the 1950s and 1960s, CDC became the center for venereal disease, tuberculosis, and immunization programs. The centers also played a pivotal role in the eradication of smallpox, through the development of a vaccine and an inoculation instrument. Other accomplishments include the identification of Legionnaire's disease and toxic shock syndrome in the 1970s and 1980s, hantavirus pulmonary syndrome in 1993, and, beginning in 1981, a lead role in the research and treatment of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome.
In 1961, CDC took over the task of publishing Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Then as now, the MMWR is a definitive weekly synopsis of data on deaths and selected diseases from every state in the United States. A noteworthy publication in MMWR was the first report in a 1981 issue of the disease that would come to be known as Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome.
Another advance took place in 1978, with the opening of a containment facility that could be used to study the most lethal viruses known to exist (e.g., Ebola). Only a few such facilities exist in the world. Without such high containment facilities, hemorrhagic viruses could not be studied, and development of vaccines would be impossible.
Ultimately, CDC moved far beyond its original mandate as a communicable disease center. To reflect this change, the name of the organization was changed in 1970 to the Center for Disease Control. In 1981, the name was again changed to the Centers for Disease Control. The subsequent initiation of programs designed to target chronic diseases, breast and cervical cancers and lifestyle issues (e.g., smoking) extended CDC's mandate beyond disease control. Thus, in 1992, the organization became the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (the acronym CDC was retained).
Today, CDC is a world renowned center of excellence for public health research, disease detection, and dissemination of information on a variety of diseases and health issues.
