Category: Archive

CDC Protects People from Disease Threats and Outbreaks in the U.S. and Around the World

This blog was originally published on Global Health Council’s The Collective Voice on June 16, 2017. Opinion polls show that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is one of the federal government’s most admired and trusted agencies. Since its founding in 1946, CDC’s history as America’s premier public health agency has been tightly intertwined Read More >

Posted on by Carmen Villar, MSW, Center for Global Health Deputy Director for Policy and Communications

Keeping Kids Healthy in Sierra Leone

More than 2.8 million children in Sierra Leone were vaccinated against measles during campaigns in 2016.

Even before the recent Ebola outbreak, the lack of quality healthcare was a major challenge in Sierra Leone, leading to the country suffering some of the highest maternal and child mortality rates in the world. When a major outbreak strikes, overburdened health systems struggle to take care of other critical health issues, like making sure Read More >

Posted on by Regan Rickert-Hartman and Tushar Singh1 Comment

Rotary and CDC – Partners in Polio and Beyond

Partnerships play an integral role in CDC’s international work. Eradication and elimination initiatives for vaccine-preventable diseases serve as examples underlining the importance of public-private partnerships. Global polio eradication has been and remains a top priority for CDC. It would be only the second time in history that a human disease has been eradicated, and partners Read More >

Posted on by W. William Schluter, MD, MSPH, Director, Global Immunization DivisionTags , , , ,

Media Dialogues: Cultivating a Conducive Tobacco-Control Environment In Cameroon

The author, Caleb Ayong

As the communications officer for the Cameroonian Coalition for Tobacco Control (C3T), I know the importance of educating journalists and guiding them to use factually accurate information from trustworthy sources. If this does not happen, they could obtain distorted information and pass it on to the public. C3T has held media dialogues with journalists for a couple of years now. Because of the opportunities these events present to build the capacity of the media to report accurately on tobacco control, we have organized three media dialogues in 2017, with more scheduled in several regions of the country in the months ahead.  Read More >

Posted on by CALEB I. AYONG, Communications Officer, Cameroonian Coalition to Counter Tobacco (C3T)Tags , , ,

Transforming Hypertension Treatment in Barbados

A blood pressure screening in Barbados.

While being a physician is certainly important to me, first and foremost I consider myself a native of Barbados. The people of Barbados are unique, but they share a commonality with citizens of many other countries: they struggle with a high burden of hypertension, also known as high blood pressure, and other risk factors for Read More >

Posted on by Dr. Kenneth Connell, the Preclinical Deputy Dean and a Faculty Lecturer in Clinical Pharmacology at the University of the West Indies, Medical Sciences Cave Hill Campus in Barbados

Strengthening Immunization in Challenging Settings

Training cold chain mentees in solar direct drive fridges installation

Providing routine immunization services is a global public health priority to protect families and children from vaccine-preventable diseases such as polio, measles, and cholera. In South Sudan, the world’s newest country, the need is enormous. Without vaccination, children and their communities may be vulnerable to preventable but deadly and disabling diseases. From 2008 to 2012, Read More >

Posted on by CDC’s Global Immunization Division in collaboration with in-country partnersTags ,

Vaccines Work: Leaving No Child Behind – How Pediatricians Can Contribute to Global Vaccine Coverage

NEPAS 2017

In Nepal, pediatricians meet with a caregiver and frontline vaccinators to learn how pediatricians can more effectively advocate for vaccine access.   Today, more children are saved by vaccines than ever before, but over 19 million children are still missing out on these critical life-saving vaccines each year across the world (WHO, 2017). To put Read More >

Posted on by Guest blogger: Louis Z. Cooper, MD, FAAP, Past President, American Academy of Pediatrics2 CommentsTags , , ,

The Road Ahead to Malaria Eradication

World Malaria Day arrives today with a theme that is equal parts ambition and aspiration—“End Malaria for Good.” It’s catchy and encapsulates a universal goal. It also compels us to take unflinching stock to understand where we are in the fight against this beguiling foe. And more importantly, what needs to change to end a Read More >

Posted on by Patrick Kachur, Chief, Malaria Branch, Division of Parasitic Diseases and Malaria, CDCTags , , , ,

Looking Back With Pride….Looking Ahead With Confidence

Over 5 million people in Burkina Faso received the MenAfriVacTM vaccine the first week of December 2010. CDC worked with global partners to help bring the vaccine through clinical development to public health availability. MenAfriVacTM was the first vaccine developed specifically to protect from the meningitis disease strain most destructive to people living in the African meningitis belt.

A historical overview on eliminating Meningitis in Africa In the 1990’s epidemics of meningitis sweeping across the vast span of the African continent known as the “meningitis belt” were claiming hundreds of thousands of lives and there was not much the global public health community was able to do. We all knew that a vaccine Read More >

Posted on by Dr. Nancy Messonnier (CAPT, USPHS) Director for the CDC National Center for Immunization and Respiratory DiseasesTags , , ,

Closer than Ever

Some of the world’s most accomplished disease experts—including several of my colleagues in CDC’s Division of Parasitic Diseases and Malaria (DPDM)—are gathering in Geneva this week at the NTD Summit 2017. Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are a group of parasitic, bacterial, and viral diseases that cause illness and disability in more than 1.5 billion people Read More >

Posted on by CAPT Stephanie Bialek, Chief, Parasitic Diseases, Division of Parasitic Disease and MalariaTags , , , , , ,