Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

The United States Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) primary public health department is known as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Atlanta, Georgia serves as the location for the headquarters of this United States government agency that is under the purview of the Department of Health and Human Services.

The primary mission of the organisation is to promote public health and safety by reducing the incidence of illness, injury, and disability in the United States and around the globe via control and preventative efforts. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) directs national attention towards the development and implementation of disease control and preventive strategies. It places a particular emphasis on infectious diseases, food-borne pathogens, environmental health, occupational safety and health, health promotion, injury prevention, and educational activities with the goal of bettering the health of inhabitants of the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is a founding member of the International Association of National Public Health Institutes and also does research and disseminates information about non-infectious disorders such as diabetes and obesity.

Rochelle Walensky is serving as the director of the CDC as of the year 2023. It is the responsibility of the United States Department of Health and Human Services to provide direction to the director. From the year 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been under criticism for the way it handled the COVID-19 epidemic. In 2022, after an internal investigation, Walensky admitted that the CDC had made "some fairly significant, quite public blunders, from testing to data to communications," and he advocated for the agency to be reorganised.

The World War II Malaria Control in War Areas programme of the Office of National Defense Malaria Control Activities gave rise to the Communicable Disease Center on July 1, 1946. The Communicable Disease Center was established as the successor to that programme.