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First CDC offices were in one floor of this building 1946. |
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Dr. Justin M. Andrews
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CDC's
origins are closely linked to malaria control activities in the US. On
July 1 1946 in Atlanta, the Communicable Disease Center was created as
a new component of the US Public Health Service. The new center was the
direct successor of the Office of Malaria Control in War Areas, an agency
established in 1942 to limit the impact of malaria and other vector borne
diseases (such as murine typhus) in the southeastern US during World War
II. The center was located in Atlanta (rather than Washington, DC) because
the South was the area of the country with the most malaria transmission.
In
the ensuing years, CDC oversaw the US national malaria eradication program
and provided technical support to activities in the 13 states where malaria
was still endemic. (Dr. Justin M. Andrews, director of CDC from 1947 to
1951, was also the state malariologist for the state of Georgia.) By 1951,
malaria was considered eradicated from the United States. However, to
the present day, malaria remains a major field of activities at CDC.
From its origins in malaria control, CDC has now grown to become the nation's
lead public health agency, whose mission is to "promote health and quality
of life by preventing and controlling disease, injury, and disability".
CDC's expansion and its evolving missions are reflected in a succession
of name changes. While the Communicable Disease Center had fewer that
400 employees housed in a building in downtown Atlanta, today's Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention includes 12 centers, institutes and
offices and employs approximately 8,500 people who are stationed in all
50 states and in 45 countries.
Page last modified : April 23, 2004
Content source: Division of Parasitic Diseases
National Center for Zoonotic, Vector-Borne, and Enteric Diseases (ZVED)
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