What is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)?

A history rooted in disease prevention

The CDC was founded on July 1, 1946, as the Communicable Disease Center. Its initial focus was malaria control, a priority due to the high incidence in the southeastern U.S. The agency began with fewer than 400 employees and a narrow mission but rapidly expanded over the decades to address a wide range of public health concerns.

Throughout its history, the CDC has played a key role in managing high-profile health threats, including polio in the 1950s, HIV/AIDS in the 1980s, the H1N1 flu pandemic in 2009, the Ebola outbreak in 2014 and the COVID-19 pandemic beginning in 2020.

While the agency has also faced scrutiny -- including for its role in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study -- it continues to evolve and refine its approach to engender transparency, equity and public trust.

Why the CDC matters

The CDC remains one of the most trusted and impactful public health institutions in the world. Its combination of scientific rigor, policy leadership and global reach positions it to tackle complex health challenges ranging from antimicrobial resistance to emerging zoonotic diseases.

Whether addressing health disparities, guiding vaccine policies or responding to biothreats, the CDC plays an indispensable role in safeguarding the public's health.

The CDC's organization and leadership

The CDC is organized into several national centers focused on specific public health domains, such as infectious diseases, immunization, environmental health and chronic disease prevention. It also oversees programs such as the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.

As of 2025, the agency is undergoing leadership transitions and structural reorganization. Dr. Mandy Cohen, who was appointed director of the CDC in 2023, stepped down in 2025, and Susan Monarez succeeded her as director in July 2025.

These changes come amid broader federal efforts to streamline infectious disease response and integrate public health preparedness across agencies.

Health IT infrastructure and public health surveillance

The CDC heavily invests in health information technology to improve surveillance and early warning capabilities. Its Public Health Information Network (PHIN) establishes data standards and supports interoperability across jurisdictions, while its Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics seeks to improve public health threat response using data analytics.

The CDC's BioSense Platform, a part of the National Syndromic Surveillance Program, is a cloud-based system that provides real-time health data for identifying and tracking disease trends across emergency departments and hospitals nationwide.

Both systems feed into broader CDC efforts to modernize public health reporting and ensure compatibility with electronic health record (EHR) systems. Through partnerships with the Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy/Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, the CDC promotes the use of health IT in disease reporting, vaccination tracking and health alert dissemination.

Diseases and conditions tracked by the CDC

The CDC provides extensive, public-facing information and scientific updates on a wide range of diseases and health conditions. These include both acute and chronic conditions:

• Asthma.
• Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.
• Autism spectrum disorder.
• Birth defects.
• Cancer.
• COVID-19.
• Diabetes.
• Heart disease.
• Hepatitis.
• HIV/AIDS.
• Influenza (flu).
• Mental health disorders.
• Mpox (formerly monkeypox).
• Sexually transmitted diseases.
• Substance use disorders.
• Tuberculosis.
• Zika virus.

The agency's online resources include prevention tips, vaccine information, symptom checkers and guidance for clinicians and the public. Regularly updated during active outbreaks, these resources are essential for public health awareness and risk mitigation.

Injury prevention and control

The CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control focuses on reducing the incidence of preventable injuries and violence.

This includes efforts to address motor vehicle crashes, prescription drug overdoses, child abuse, sexual violence, falls among older adults and youth sports concussions. The Injury Center provides funding, research and technical assistance to state and local agencies to implement injury prevention programs.

Vaccines and immunization programs

The CDC develops and disseminates immunization guidelines for people across the lifespan, including children, pregnant women, older adults and people with chronic conditions. It coordinates closely with the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) to issue evidence-based vaccine recommendations.

In addition to seasonal influenza vaccines and routine childhood immunizations, the CDC leads public communication efforts around emerging vaccine-preventable threats such as COVID-19, HPV and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

It also maintains tools and data dashboards that help track vaccine coverage rates nationally and by region.

Global health and cross-border collaboration

The CDC is a critical player in global health security. Through programs like the Global Health Security Agenda and the CDC Global Health Center, it partners with countries to strengthen disease surveillance systems, train healthcare workers and contain disease outbreaks.

The CDC deploys experts worldwide to support rapid response to epidemics and natural disasters, in addition to playing a leading role in global disease-eradication campaigns, such as those targeting polio and measles.

Challenges and recent restructuring

In March 2025, HHS announced a significant restructuring effort that will consolidate the department's 28 divisions into 15. These changes include the CDC absorbing the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response and moving NIOSH into a separate federal agency that combines several other functions.

In June 2025, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took the unprecedented move of removing all 17 members of ACIP, a panel of experts responsible for developing recommendations around vaccine use. Subsequently, he selected eight new members, including individuals who have expressed skepticism about certain vaccines.

These moves have raised concern within the public health community about narrowing the CDC's scope and damaging its credibility, particularly in infectious disease prevention, chronic disease management and environmental health.

Critics have also expressed concern about the effect of budget cuts and workforce reductions on the CDC's ability to carry out public health research and maintain community-level programs. Despite these challenges, the CDC continues to serve as the nation's authoritative source for disease surveillance, outbreak response and public health data.

Federal agencies announced updates to the Transparency in Coverage regulations, introducing a new technical schema to improve data and prescription drug price transparency.