An interesting read. It sure seems to have expanded its original scope quite a bit and some interesting names appear.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the leading, national public health institute of the United States. It is a United States federal agency, under the Department of Health and Human Services,[2] and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.[3]
Its main goal is to protect public health and safety through the control and prevention of disease, injury, and disability in the US and internationally.[4] The CDC focuses national attention on developing and applying disease control and prevention. It especially focuses its attention on infectious disease, food borne pathogens, environmental health, occupational safety and health, health promotion, injury prevention and educational activities designed to improve the health of United States citizens. The CDC also conducts research and provides information on non-infectious diseases, such as obesity and diabetes, and is a founding member of the International Association of National Public Health Institutes.[5]
The Communicable Disease Center was founded July 1, 1946, as the successor to the World War II Malaria Control in War Areas program[6] of the Office of National Defense Malaria Control Activities.[7]
Preceding its founding, organizations with global influence in malaria control were the Malaria Commission of the League of Nations and the Rockefeller Foundation.[8] The Rockefeller Foundation greatly supported malaria control,[8] sought to have the governments take over some of its efforts, and collaborated with the agency.[9]
In 1947, the CDC made a token payment of $10 to Emory University for 15 acres (61,000 m2) of land on Clifton Road in DeKalb County, still the home of CDC headquarters as of 2019. CDC employees collected the money to make the purchase. The benefactor behind the "gift" was Robert W. Woodruff, chairman of the board of The Coca-Cola Company. Woodruff had a long-time interest in malaria control, which had been a problem in areas where he went hunting. The same year, the PHS transferred its San Francisco based plague laboratory into the CDC as the Epidemiology Division, and a new Veterinary Diseases Division was established.[6] An Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) was established in 1951, originally due to biological warfare concerns arising from the Korean War; it evolved into two-year postgraduate training program in epidemiology, and a prototype for Field Epidemiology Training Programs (FETP), now[when?] found in numerous countries, reflecting CDC's influence in promoting this model internationally.[13]
Since the 1990s, the CDC focus has broadened to include chronic diseases, disabilities, injury control, workplace hazards, environmental health threats, and terrorism preparedness. CDC combats emerging diseases and other health risks, including birth defects, West Nile virus, obesity, avian, swine, and pandemic flu, E. coli, and bioterrorism, to name a few. The organization would also prove to be an important factor in preventing the abuse of penicillin. In May 1994 the CDC admitted having sent samples of communicable diseases to the Iraqi government from 1984 through 1989 which were subsequently repurposed for biological warfare, including Botulinum toxin, West Nile virus, Yersinia pestis and Dengue fever virus.[16]
On April 21, 2005, then–CDC Director Julie Gerberding formally announced the reorganization of CDC to "confront the challenges of 21st-century health threats".[17] The four Coordinating Centers—established under the G. W. Bush Administration and Gerberding—"diminished the influence of national centers under [their] umbrella",[clarification needed] and were ordered cut under the Obama Administration in 2009.[18]