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About
the Bacterial Diseases Branch
What is the Mission
of the Bacterial Diseases Branch?
The mission of the Bacterial Diseases Branch is to 1) develop and maintain
surveillance for vector-borne Bacterial Diseases with emphasis on Lyme
disease, plague, tularemia, bartonellosis,
and tick-borne relapsing fever; 2) provide consultation, laboratory services,
epidemiologic services, and epidemic aid to local and state health departments
and to national and international agencies for these same diseases; 3)
conduct laboratory and field research on vector-borne Bacterial Diseases
to improve diagnosis, prevention, and control; 4) train technical and
professional personnel in diagnostic, reference, and research laboratory
methods, epidemiology, disease ecology and control; 5) function as a WHO
Collaborating Center for Reference and Research on Plague Control and
the National Center for Lyme Disease Reference and Research.
- Diagnostic
and Reference Section: 1) Provides diagnostic and reference
services for Lyme disease, plague, tularemia, and relapsing fever
to the other CDC divisions and to local, state, national and international
agencies; 2) prepares diagnostic and reference reagents; 3) conducts
research on the development and application of new and improved
diagnostic techniques; 4) conducts tests on rodent, flea, and tick
specimens from field studies to determine the presence of infection
with Bacterial Diseases; 5) participates in epidemiologic studies
of these diseases; 6) provides training on laboratory diagnosis
of bacterial zoonotic infections; 7) maintains molecular epidemiology
database of bacterial zoonotic disease agents; 8) serves the diagnostic
and reference functions of the National Center for Reference and
Research on Lyme Disease and the WHO Collaborating Center for Reference
and Research on Plague Control.
- Epidemiology
Section: 1) Develops and maintains national and international
surveillance for vector-borne bacterial diseases, with emphasis
on Lyme disease and plague; 2) conducts outbreak and other epidemiologic
investigations of these diseases and provides recommendations for
their prevention and control; 3) provides authoritative advice on
clinical and laboratory diagnosis of Bacterial Diseases, their treatment,
prevention and control; 4) conducts epidemiologic field studies
to measure risk factors for disease transmission; 5) helps develop
and evaluate new strategies for diagnosis, prevention and control
of vector-borne bacterial diseases; 6) serves the epidemiologic
investigation and clinical consultative functions of the WHO Collaborating
Center for Reference and Research on Plague Control, and the National
Center for Lyme Disease Reference and Research.
- Lyme
Disease Vector Section: 1) Provides consultation and assistance
in outbreak and other epidemiologic investigations of Lyme disease
and related borrelioses; 2) conducts research on the biology and
ecology of tick vectors of Lyme disease and related borrelioses
with emphasis on developing improved surveillance, prevention, and
control of the tick vectors of Lyme disease; 3) defines parameters
affecting vector competence of Ixodes ticks, and determines
vector competence of tick species in other genera; 4) identifies
and quantitatively characterizes vector-associated factors that
place persons in endemic areas at risk of acquiring Lyme disease;
5) develops and evaluates intervention strategies directed at the
tick vectors for prevention and control of Lyme disease; 6) improves
laboratory colonization methods for tick vectors and maintains colonies
of selected species; 7) improves current methods and develops new
methods for detection and isolation of spirochetes from ticks; 8)
coordinates and participates in CDC training courses and revises
and prepares training manuals on vectors of Lyme disease; 9) serves
the entomologic, ecologic investigation, prevention and control
functions of the National Center for Reference and Research on Lyme
Disease.
- Molecular
Bacteriology Section: 1) Conducts basic and applied research
on the biology of vector-borne bacterial disease agents, including
Lyme disease, plague, tularemia, relapsing fever, and other bacterial
zoonoses; 2) identifies, characterizes, and produces products that
permit improved diagnosis of bacterial infections, particularly
Lyme disease; 3) develops and utilizes molecular techniques to study
bacterial strain diversity as it relates to pathogenesis, origin
and transmission; 4) identifies and characterizes bacterial products
which are important in virulence and disease pathogenesis; 5) identifies
and evaluates candidate immunogens which may be useful as vaccines;
6) provides expertise and training in the molecular analysis of
bacterial disease agents; 7) provides consultation in the areas
of virulence mechanisms, plasmids and other genetic elements, bacterial
genetics, and recombinant DNA.
- Plague
Section: 1) Develops and maintains national and international
surveillance for plague; 2) plans and conducts field investigations
on the epidemiology, ecology, and control of plague and tularemia;
3) provides technical consultation, assistance, and epidemic aid
to state and local health departments and to national and international
agencies; 4) confirms and investigates human plague cases and prepares
surveillance reports on plague in the United States for CDC and
WHO; 5) provides training to state and local health authorities
on prevention and control of plague; 6) serves the entomologic,
ecologic investigation, prevention and control functions of the
WHO Collaborating Center for Reference and Research on Plague Control.
DVBID Organizational
Structure The organizational
structure of DVBID includes three branches that compose the division:
the Arbovirus Diseases Branch, the Bacterial Diseases
Branch, and the Dengue Branch (located in San Juan,
Puerto Rico). |