Dr. James Surrell, Journal columnist

The Centers for Disease Control, referred to as the CDC, is a United States federal government agency that has the following stated mission.

The U.S. CDC works 24/7 to protect America from diseases and health threats, both from foreign and domestic sources. Therefore, whether diseases start at home or abroad, the CDC works constantly to fight disease by offering support to all our communities and our itizens to do the same. Of course, the CDC is extremely busy at this time dealing with the corona virus pandemic that has infiltrated our great country.

Following is brief review of the founding and the early history of the CDC, that was initially referred to as the Communicable Disease Center, also abbreviated as CDC.

On July 1, 1946, the Communicable Disease Center (CDC) opened its doors and occupied one floor of a small building in Atlanta. The first stated mission of the CDC was highly challenging. This initial mission of the CDC was to try to prevent malaria from spreading across our entire nation.

The CDC was initially armed with a budget of only 10 million dollars and had fewer than 400 employees. At this time, malaria was a very serious health issue, that was primarily spread by mosquitoes. This then became the first mission of the CDC. The CDC faced numerous early challenges that included obtaining enough trucks, sprayers, and shovels necessary to wage an effective war on the mosquitoes causing the spread of malaria across the U.S.

In the early history of the CDC, medical epidemiologists were scarce in those early years. Therefore, disease surveillance became the cornerstone of CDC’s mission of service to the individual states and over time changed the practice of public health. There have been many significant accomplishments since CDC’s humble beginnings. The following highlights some of CDC’s important achievements for improving public health worldwide.

The following is a summary of the six items of the stated current role of the CDC to serve our country. 1. The CDC will work diligently to detect and respond to new and emerging health threats. 2. The CDC will aggressively tackle the biggest health problems causing death and disability for our population. 3. The CDC will put science and advanced technology into action to prevent disease. 4. The CDC will promote healthy and safe behaviors in our USA communities. 5. The CDC will work to develop leaders and training of the public health workforce. 6. The CDC will continuously take the health pulse of our nation.

The following is the stated five items that make up the mission of the CDC today. 1. The CDC will plan to remain on the cutting edge of health security by confronting global disease threats. They will do this by using our advanced computing and lab analysis of huge amounts of data to quickly find solutions. 2. The CDC will put science into action, by tracking disease and finding out what is making people sick, and work to find the most effective ways to prevent these diseases. 3. The CDC will continue to work to help improve medical care by bringing new medical knowledge to individuals and communities to save more lives. 4. The CDC will continue to work to fight diseases before they reach our borders by detecting and confronting new germs and diseases around the globe to increase our national security. 5. The CDC will continue to work to nurture public health by working to help our nation to have strong knowledgeable public health leaders and capabilities at national, state and local levels to protect our population from various health threats.

In these times of the corona virus pandemic, the nationwide mission of our CDC remains vitally important. Thank you, CDC.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Dr. Jim Surrell is the author of “The ABC’s For Success In All We Do” and the “SOS (Stop Only Sugar) Diet” books.Contact Dr. Surrell by email at sosdietdoc@gmail.com.