Why Consider CDC?


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CDC has been in the news a lot lately. In 2001, the agency emerged from a period where, for the most part, it conducted its work competently but quietly, largely below the radar of the media. As the nation's lead disease prevention agency, CDC has led or assisted greatly in investigating weaponized anthrax attacks; worker safety at the World Trade Center site after 9/11; West Nile Virus in 2002; SARS, Monkeypox, and Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy in 2003; Tsunami relief efforts and influenza vaccine shortage in 2004; and Marburg virus and Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, among many others. These responses to public health emergencies are the most visible glimpses of the agency to the public.