Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

Operating through the Department of Health and Human Services, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) protects the health of the nation through promotion, prevention, and preparedness and plays a major role in improving public health globally. CDC is based at 1600 Clifton Road, NE, in Atlanta, Georgia. Information is provided though a toll-free number (800-311-3435) and through the agency Web site (http://www.cdc.gov/). What is now CDC began on July 1, 1946, as Malaria Control in War Areas (MCWA), with only a single, small building and a few hundred employees. Entomologists and engineers provided the expertise needed to destroy malaria-car-rying mosquitoes with DDT, and some 58 percent of the original workload was concentrated on this single function. With a budget of less that $10 million, CDC employed only seven medical officers.

Today, CDC's area of operations has expanded to include preventing and controlling all infectious and chronic diseases, injuries, workplace hazards, disabilities, and environmental threats. CDC researchers and investigators perform essential functions by identifying factors that threaten health and by shaping national and international agendas to eliminate or mitigate threats to public health. The CDC budget has expanded to $8 billion (fiscal year 2005), and the agency employs a staff of approximately 15,000. CDC facilities were expanded in September 2005 with the addition of four new buildings. The CDC has the capability to respond to national and world crises at a moment's notice.

The goal of promoting global health though prevention and control of disease, injury, and disability is accomplished through the dissemination of information and collaborations with government and civic organizations in the United States and abroad. CDC activities include monitoring health, identifying and investigating health threats, conducting research, developing policies, implementing strategies aimed at prevention and control, promoting healthy lifestyles and behaviors, protecting environmental health, and supplying leadership and training on health-related issues.

The CDC is made up of several facilities dedicated to performing specific functions, and its laboratories are state of the art. The Global Communications Center, which functions as a training institution for public health professionals, also includes a visitor education center and conference and distance learning facilities. The Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratory is probably the best known of all CDC facilities, for it is there that research is conducted on life-threatening infectors such as Ebola, viral hemorrhagic fevers, monkeypox, [Page 362]and avian influenza. The main headquarters building of CDC houses the Office of the Director, the Emergency Operations Center, and the Office of Terrorism Preparedness and Emergency Response. In the Environmental Health Laboratory, scientists conduct research on environmental toxins and develop new diagnostic and prevention methods. Since the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, responding to potential bioterrorist activities has been a high priority at CDC.

Recommendations from the Government Accounting Office led CDC to hire seven chief management officials who have been charged with improving operations and evaluating progress. Other changes included reassigning more than 600 employees from administrative positions to research and field work, slashing administrative costs by more than $83 million, consolidating 40 hotlines into one contact center, restructuring human resources to eliminate 76 jobs, consolidating the technology infrastructure at a savings of $23 million, and streamlining management levels.

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