Spotlight: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the United States’ health protection agency, employing more than 15,000 people both domestically and internationally in almost 170 different occupations. Every second of every day, the CDC has disease detectives and scientists around the world tracking diseases, researching outbreaks, and responding to medical and health emergencies of all kinds. It’s this continuous vigilance to protecting the nation’s public health that allows the agency to respond to health threats — whenever and wherever they occur.

Like a police force or fire department, the public doesn’t need to think about the CDC’s presence unless an emergency arises. However, it is the constant diligence in tracking and studying diseases and outbreaks that positions the CDC and the United States on the leading edge of global public health-related occurrences.

This constant presence has positioned the CDC to lead the rest of the country in the fight to prevent the spread of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in the United States. In addition, the CDC is working with public health officials from around the world to address the outbreak in West Africa. More than 125 disease detectives and scientists from the CDC have been on the ground in West Africa since the early stages of the Ebola outbreak. There the CDC has provided support and training while also gathering intelligence and information that has been vital to informing domestic prevention, control and treatment efforts.

Learn more about the CDC and its efforts:

• CDC’s website
• CDC’s Ebola information