CDC simply means the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This is a United States federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services. As the name clearly states, this agency is in charge of procuring measures for controlling and preventing diseases that may plague the nation.
CDC
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is the leading national public health institute of the United States of America. It has its headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, the U.S. This institute helps to protect public health and bring about safety.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
As earlier mentioned, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC, is an institute in the United States that helps to deal with controlling and preventing diseases, injuries and disabilities in the nation and even internationally.
The CDC which was formed on the 1st of July, 1946 precedes the following agencies.
- Office of National Defense Malaria Control Activities which was formed in 1942
- Office of Malaria Control in War Areas which functioned from 1942 to 1946.
- Communicable Disease Center which functioned from 1946 to 1967.
- National Communicable Disease Center which functioned from 1967 to 1970.
- Center for Disease Control which functioned from 1970 to 1980.
- Centers for Disease Control which functioned from 1980 to 1992.
Now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) oversees all the functions of these agencies. The CDC is operating under the agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. With Robert R. Redfield as Director and Anne Schuchat as the Principal Deputy Director, the annual budget of the agency is over eleven billion dollars (US$11 billion).
The agency has ten thousand, eight hundred and ninety-nine workers employed in the agency as of 2015. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has an official website, www.cdc.gov, where one can go to learn more about them.
Functions of CDC
The CDC, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has several functions which it tackles. Some of the functions of the CDC are;
- Protect public health safety through the control and prevention of disease, injury and disability in the United States of America and also internationally.
- Developing and applying disease control and prevention.
- Improving the health of the United States.
- Conducts research and provides information on non-infectious diseases.
- Operates quarantine facilities (in about twenty cities in the United States).
- Helps many organizations each year advance health, safety and awareness at the community level throughout the United States by offering grants.
These are the functions of the CDC in the United States.
Organization Of The CDC
The organization of the CDC refers to the structure of the agency. They are as follows;
- Director
- Principal Deputy Director
- Deputy Director – Public Health Service and Implementation Science
- Office of Minority Health and Health Equity
- Center for Global Health
- Center for Preparedness and Response
- Center for State, Tribal, Local, and Territory Support
- Deputy Director – Public Health Science and Surveillance
- Office of Science
- Office of Laboratory Science and Safety
- Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services
- National Center for Health Statistics
- Deputy Director – Non-Infectious Diseases
- National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities
- National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
- National Center for Environmental Health and Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
- National Center for Injury Prevention and Control
- Deputy Director – Infectious Diseases
- National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases
- National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (includes the Division of Global Migration and Quarantine, which issues quarantine orders)
- National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention
- National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
- Office of the Director
- Chief of Staff
- Chief Operating Officer
- Human Resources Office
- Office of Financial Resources
- Office of Safety, Security, and Asset Management
- Office of the Chief Information Officer
- Chief Medical Officer
- CDC Washington Office
- Office of Equal Employment Opportunity
- Associate Director – Communication
- Associate Director – Laboratory Science and Safety
- Associate Director – Policy and Strategy
This is the structure the CDC follows.
Area of Focus of CDC
Some of the areas in which the CDC focuses are;
- Communicable diseases like smallpox, measles, influenza, etc.
- Non-communicable diseases like chronic diseases caused by obesity.
- Antibiotic resistance
- Global health and
- Traveller’s Health
Focusing on these areas helps the agency to better proffer solutions to health problems, coming up with cures, controls and preventions.
CDC can also be found in other countries, having the same functions. They are;
- Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, a United States government public health agency
- Centres for Disease Control and Prevention Korea, a South Korean government public health agency
- Centres for Disease Control (Taiwan), an agency in Taiwan (the Republic of China) that combats the threat of communicable diseases
- Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, a public health agency in the People’s Republic of China
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Nigeria, an agency in Nigeria that helps to combat the threat of communicable diseases.
There are several others in different countries performing these same functions.
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