About the Center for Global Health (CGH)

CDC’s global health mission is to improve the health, safety, and security of Americans while reducing morbidity and mortality worldwide. This is achieved through its unique technical skills, scientific knowledge and research, collaborative partnerships, and evidence-based, global public health action. CDC, through CGH, executes its global health vision and mission by focusing on three key goal areas: achieving measurable global health impact; assuring global health security; and providing world-renowned public health science leadership.

Disease knows no borders. In today’s interconnected world, a disease threat anywhere can be a health threat everywhere. A pathogen can travel around the globe to major cities in as little as 36 hours. CDC experts are on the frontlines fighting diseases to protect Americans in the U.S. and abroad.

CDC’s global activities protect Americans from major health threats, including HIV, TB, polio, Ebola, Zika, cholera, and malaria. CDC, through CGH, monitors disease outbreaks 24/7 around the world to prevent regional and global health crises that affect health, security, and economic stability abroad and at home.

CGH coordinates global health activities across CDC. CGH has four divisions – Division of Global Health Protection (DGHP), Division of Global HIV & TB (DGHT), Division of Parasitic Diseases and Malaria (DPDM), and Global Immunization Division (GID). Each division has a specific focus, but all aim to protect the health of Americans at home and to save lives overseas.

Division Goals

Division of Global Health Protection:

• Reduce the impact of disease outbreaks and other public health events by monitoring 24/7 for outbreaks and by increasing rapid response to global health emergencies.
• Protect Americans from deadly and costly infectious disease outbreaks by building capacities in partner countries to effectively prevent, detect, and respond to infectious disease outbreaks at their source.
• Sustain and strengthen partnerships for global health security.

Division of Global HIV and TB:

• Drive global progress in HIV prevention and treatment as part of the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), moving some of the world’s most effected countries toward HIV epidemic control.
• Protect Americans at home and abroad by finding, curing, and preventing TB locally before it takes root globally.
• Use data to drive program impact and cost effectiveness.
• Strengthen in-country public health systems for long-term sustainability.
• Sustain long-standing collaborations with Ministries of Health to further enhance the country capacity needed to respond to infectious disease threats.

Division of Parasitic Diseases and Malaria:

• Reduce death, illness, and disability from parasitic diseases in the United States.
• Eliminate the global burden of malaria and targeted neglected tropical diseases.
• Advance research to detect, prevent, and eliminate parasitic diseases.

Global Immunization Division:

• Stop poliovirus transmission.
• Reduce child mortality from other vaccine-preventable diseases including measles and rubella.
• Improve and support innovation to address strengthening key components of immunization systems (access, data systems, demand, and workforce) to achieve global goals.
• Explore how to better support vaccination efforts of epidemic-prone diseases (e.g., Ebola, Japanese encephalitis, meningitis, and yellow fever).