Tuesday, May 16, 2017

The History of the CDC

Today, the CDC, or Center for Disease Control and Prevention, is an incredibly important federal agency, managed by the Department of Health and Human Services, that works to promote public health and prevent the spread of disease in the United States. The CDC works with departments on a state and local level in order to better educate the public on injury or disease prevention and create a meaningful framework to optimally respond to potential disease outbreaks and epidemics.

The CDC was originally established in 1942 as MCWA, Malaria Control in War Areas. At this point, its primary purpose was the prevent the outbreak of malaria in military training bases. The MCWA would go through several name changes, such as the Communicable Disease Center, which focused on other infectious diseases that ravaged military bases, and the National Communicable Disease Center before settling on its current iteration.

The CDC now focuses on even more than just infectious diseases and their outbreaks. The CDC also focuses on national health surveillance, to analyze larger trends in public health to more effectively improve public health efforts and respond to various policy challenges.



https://www.cdc.gov/ophss/docs/cdc-surveillance-strategy-final.pdf
https://www.cdc.gov/about/history/ourstory.htm
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5 comments:

  1. AnonymousMay 17, 2017 at 9:26 PM

    Really interesting post! I think it's especially interesting how the CDC interacts with new health policy and how differing health trends and outbreaks continue to policymaker's decision to create policy. How do you think the CDC has contributed to policies like Obamacare?

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  2. AnonymousMay 17, 2017 at 11:04 PM

    I'm not totally sure the CDC has contributed to Obamacare, because the CDC is largely apolitical. However, the CDC has done lots of great research on vaccines for different infectious diseases and epidemics. Do you think funding for the CDC will change with the current presidency?

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  3. AnonymousMay 18, 2017 at 1:43 PM

    Great post! It's interesting how the CDC controls and creates policies in regards for the nation's health – they have to deal with health outbreaks and find solutions to better the United States.

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  4. AnonymousMay 18, 2017 at 9:25 PM

    Nice post! I like how you included the history of the CDC and how it has become how we know it today. It is vital to know what infrastructure is in place to maintain the public health.

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  5. AnonymousMay 18, 2017 at 10:05 PM

    Very interesting post! I was not aware that the CDC started as an organization to prevent the spread of malaria. I wonder how the program developed into what it is today in terms of funding and influence.

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