How the coronavirus has made the CDC more valuble than ever

On July 1, 1946, the Communicable Disease Center was founded. It is still called the CDC but its full name is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The agency was established the year after World War II ended, descended from the wartime agency, Malaria Control in War Areas and was part of the United States Public Health Service.

The CDC began on the sixth floor of the Volunteer Building on Peachtree Street in Atlanta, hundreds of miles from Washington, D.C., because its initial mission to combat malaria in the South. During the first year of operations, 59% of CDC’s personnel were engaged in the malaria eradication effort.

DDT, available since 1943, was the CDC’s primary weapon against malaria, and the agency’s early challenges included obtaining enough trucks, sprayers and shovels necessary to wage the war on mosquitoes. Over 6.5 million homes were sprayed. DDT was banned by the EPA in the 1970s because of its severe environmental harm.

In 1947, the CDC made a token payment of $10 to Emory University for 15 acres on Clifton Road in Atlanta, where its headquarters are today.

In recent years, the CDC has about 22,000 employees and contractors in 171 occupations.

The agency says 40% of its employees have master’s degrees, 25% have Ph.Ds. and 10% are medical doctors.

A few highlights of the organization’s history include:

• Control of malaria, typhus, polio, and cholera epidemics
• Closing in on the eradication of smallpox
• Closing in on the possible eradication of polio
• Combating malarial transmission in the U.S., MERS and Enterovirus-D68 outbreaks
• Management of antibiotic-resistant infections, birth defects and a number of chronic diseases
• Fighting the battle against Ebola in West Africa
• Disease detectives continuing to combat new pathogens like the Zika virus and COVID-19

Yearly lab work on flu

The world has changed since the COVID-19 global pandemic. Here’s what the CDC does each year to find the right flu vaccines. The first U.S. testing of a COVID-19 vaccine began in Seattle on Monday but is not expected to be ready for mass distribution in the near future.

Budget

These figures are from before the pandemic was declared on March 11.

CDC mission

Detecting and responding to new and emerging health threats.

Tackling the biggest health problems causing death and disability for Americans.

Putting science and advanced technology into action to prevent disease.

Promoting healthy and safe behaviors, communities and environment.

Developing leaders and training the public health workforce, including disease detectives.

Taking the health pulse of our nation.

Working around the globe

Global Rapid Response Team mobilizations from Sept. 2015-July 2017

 

Sources: CDC, World Health Organization Photo from Wikimedia Commons

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