The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is a non-profit organization established in 1946 to control malaria during World War II. It was based in Atlanta, USA. Since then, the organization has played a vital role in the control of communicable and infectious diseases globally. CDC has opened networks in every country and over 60 regional offices worldwide (CDC, 2023). CDC offices in various countries leverage competence and provide scientific and program boost to bilateral nation partners, World Health Organization (WHO), implementing partners, and multilateral institutions. The CDC works throughout the day to protect the world from disease threats and respond adequately to contain outbreaks and pandemics. Therefore, CDC plays a critical role in maintaining public safety and health.
The CDC aims to promote equal health and security opportunities and quality of life in the individual country. CDC is guided by its vision of ‘equitably protecting health, security, and safety.’ CDC’s vision shows the organization’s functions and scope of work (CDC, 2022). The CDC provides public health surveillance and laboratory services in developing and developed countries without barriers or discrimination. Moreover, it ensures the safety of the employees involved in the intervention and the affected community or nation. CDC put up measures to control disease spread in a pandemic like COVID-19 and create public awareness of the disease transmission and prevention. The mission of the CDC is to work 24/7 to protect America from security, health, and safety threats in the US or outside (CDC, 2022). The CDC works to curb all diseases that are either acute or chronic, deliberate attack or human error, home-based or abroad, and preventable or curable. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, CDC provided revaccination and vaccination guidelines and even supported the distribution of vaccines to various countries. From this, the CDC’s mission and vision show its purpose, scope of work, and guidelines to ensure public health security.
Equity is part of the CDC pillar that guides them in giving equal opportunity to all nations. CDC promotes health equity in all communities by supporting them to achieve their full potential. CDC removes the social, economic, and environmental barriers facing countries to give equal chances in promoting public health. Social determinants of health like culture, beliefs, age, residence, race, income, housing, and tribe greatly influence an individual’s health outcome and the community. The CDC has a developed ‘Health Communities Program Approach’ that forms a framework for the organization to eliminate community disparities, promote health for all groups worldwide, and achieve health equality (CDC, 2013). The Healthy Communities Program for CDC aims to provide health and security regardless of ethnic/racial and social economic differences. The program helps the organization implement the interventions planned and needed to prevent and control diseases in various countries with different sociocultural, economic, religious, and political policies. Therefore, CDC can attain health equity and promote public health through the Healthy Communities Approach.
In addition, CDC is a non-profit organization; thus, it depends on donations and grants from various sources. The CDC Foundation receives charitable contributions and gifts to fight safety and health threats. CDC Foundation was founded in 1992 after the US Congress passed it to form part of the CDC dealing with donations and grants. The foundation collaborates closely with many organizations, corporations, individuals, and foundations to ensure a faster and more effective response to security, safety, and health threats. The foundation is solely responsible for partnering with private organizations in raising private funds for supporting CDC work and strategies. CDC Foundation has a small endowment to support its activities, therefore, the CDC Foundation creates an administrative fee of 16% of each grant or donation to support the administration and operation of the organization (CDC Foundation, 2023). The CDC Foundation has received the highest Charity Navigator ratings for the past five years. The Charity Navigator is responsible for assessing various charity organizations’ financial health and fiscal responsibilities yearly. Therefore, CDC Foundation is the main responsible body for indirectly financing the CDC projects and operations using donated grants and contributions.
Moreover, the CDC foundation adds value to the organization in more ways other than funding. The CDC Foundation supports expanding existing programs, launching new programs, and establishing proof through pilot projects before scaling the projects up. External partnerships allow the CDC to effectively and quickly collaborate with other technologies, information, and experts in addressing health concerns. To ensure that the CDC is not controlled by a single group of funders or funder, a legal agreement is signed between partners agreeing on controlling the content by the CDC but not the partner (CDC Foundation, 2023). CDC Foundation uses various methods to ensure transparency of financial rates within the organization. Machine-readable files are uploaded to the organization’s portal to allow regulators, researchers, and application developers access and analyze the economical rates. Therefore, the organization’s charity funds from various partners are managed transparently, and the CDC foundation policies guide their use.
The CDC impacts society’s health, safety, and security significantly and positively. The organization uses active surveillance worldwide to identify emerging health problems and monitor existing infections to ensure control (McNabb et al., 2016). It uses an evidence-based approach to countering public health threats. It employs laboratory investigations, epidemiological studies, data collection, analysis, and implementation of relevant interventions to solve health insecurities. The CDC utilizes research findings in the planning and implementation of operational programs. In addition, it is through scientific research that the CDC tests the efficiency and effectiveness of implemented health promotion programs, disease prevention, and control measures put in place. Therefore, it is through scientific research and active surveillance that the CDC is able to meet the specific health issues of a community and prevent upcoming health and security threats.
Furthermore, CDC provides funding to various countries to provide treatments and vaccines and implement strategies to prevent or plan for emerging security or health threats. CDC has been a critical funder of HIV medications for millions of people all over Europe and Africa. CDC provides funds to many HIV prevention partners, including; regional, local, and national organizations, health departments, and community-based organizations in the US (CDC, 2022). The organization has an integrated HIV surveillance that provides data on HIV cases and helps implement appropriate measures to prevent disease transmission. Moreover, CDC provides assistance and consultation to nurses and other organizations in environmental health, health maintenance, disease control, and prevention. The organization collaborates and works with various professionals to meet health goals. The CDC funds multiple nations and organizations from this to treat and prevent communicable diseases.
The CDC is one of the crucial global health organizations promoting safety, security, and health. CDC provides a broad scope of support to all countries regardless of their social, economic, and political ideologies. The organization ensures health equity in all communities. In addition, the CDC is a non-profit organization that gets funding from various charitable partners and organizations. The CDC Foundation is solely responsible for managing the CDC funds from multiple contributors and for different projects. The CDC uses the funds to financially support nations and local and regional communities in surveillance, prevention measures, and treatment programs. The CDC has invested in various countries for COVID vaccines and HIV treatments. Thus, CDC has dramatically impacted public health, security, and safety in US and outside.
References
CDC Foundation. (2023). Frequently Asked Questions. https://www.cdcfoundation.org/FAQ
Center for Disease Control and Prevention. (2022a). About CDC. https://www.cdc.gov/about/organization/mission.htm
Center for Disease Control and Prevention. (2022b). Funding at Work. https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/policies/funding/index.html
Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2013). Attaining Health Equity. https://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dch/programs/healthycommunitiesprogram/overview/healthequity.htm
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2023). Global Health. https://www.cdc.gov/globalhealth/resources/reports/annual/22/map.html
McNabb, S., Conde, J. M., Ferland, L., Macwright, W., Memish, Z., Okutani, S., Park, M., Ryland, P., Shaikh, A., & Singh, V. (2016). Transforming Public Health Surveillance – E-Book: Proactive Measures for Prevention, Detection, and Response. Elsevier Health Sciences.
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