Global Health Security: Prevention

CDC aims to PREVENT avoidable epidemics, including naturally occurring outbreaks and intentional or accidental releases.

This is achieved through the following objectives:

The First dose of hepatitis B vaccine, given within 24 hours of birth, is administered to a baby in Laos.

  1. Preventing the emergence and spread of drug-resistant microbes and emerging zoonotic diseases and strengthening international regulatory frameworks governing food safety
    • Act to reduce the individual and institutional factors that enable antimicrobial resistance and the emergence of disease threats that move from animals to humans. These are known as zoonotic diseases.
    • Increase surveillance and early detection of drug-resistant microorganisms and novel zoonotic diseases.
    • Strengthen supply chains.
    • Promote safe practices in livestock production and the marketing of animals.
    • Promote the appropriate and responsible use of antibiotics in all settings, including developing strategies to improve food safety.
  2. Promoting national biosafety and biosecurity systems
    • Promote the development of ways for countries to manage biological materials needed for diagnosis, research, and biosurveillance. This effort involves identifying, securing, safely monitoring, and storing dangerous microbes in a minimal number of facilities. It is also necessary to advance safe and responsible conduct for handling microbes.
  3. Reducing the number and magnitude of infectious disease outbreaks
    • Establish effective programs for vaccination against epidemic-prone diseases and infection control in hospitals.

Examples of CDC Prevention Efforts