Director of Division of Global Disease Detection & Emergency Response (DGDDER):
Scott F. Dowell, MD, MPH

Scott F. Dowell, a pediatric infectious disease specialist by training, now focuses his work on global public health as director of the Division of Global Disease Detection and Emergency Response at the CDC Center for Global Health (CGH).

From 2001 to 2005 he established and directed the International Emerging Infections Program in Thailand, a collaboration between the CDC and the Thai Ministry of Public Health.  The program received accolades from the Thai and U.S. governments for its prominent role in responding to the SARS crisis and for its leadership in defining the response to avian influenza A (H5N1) in Southeast Asia.  Building on the success in Thailand, Dr. Dowell returned to Atlanta to help develop the Global Disease Detection program, now established as CDC’s principal means of identifying and containing emerging infections around the world. CDC currently maintains GDD Regional Centers in 7 countries: Thailand, Kenya, Guatemala, China, Egypt, Kazakhstan, and India.

In 2009 the program was formally recognized by the World Health Organization as a Collaborating Center for Implementation of the revised International Health Regulations. Dr. Dowell’s infectious disease work has focused on the viral and bacterial causes of respiratory infections, controlling the spread of antimicrobial resistance, and responding to outbreaks of emerging infectious diseases.  He has a special interest in the underlying cause of seasonal variation in infectious diseases.