CDC’s Global Health Center Responds to Outbreaks

Overview

CDC’s Global Health Center Responds to Outbreaks report highlights how GHC is drawing on existing capacities developed overseas in partnership with other nations to address COVID-19. It also describes how programs within the Global Health Center are adapting to the pandemic to continue addressing long-standing global infectious disease threats.

To support, guide, and unify external partner efforts to amplify the messages in this report, please explore our social media toolkit that provides suggested language, graphics, animations, and shareable content for social media platforms.

Partners can support this effort through the following activities:

• Communicate targeted messages on GHC program adaptations to address COVID-19
• Disseminate content and participate in message amplification digital campaigns using your online channels (e.g., social media, blogs, listservs/newsletters)
• Share this toolkit with other relevant organizations and/or individuals and encourage their support

Top-line messages

• In an increasingly interconnected world, infectious outbreaks like measles, Ebola, Zika, polio, cholera, typhoid, and COVID-19 can become widespread regional and global threats. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) mission is to protect Americans from these health threats in collaboration with other U.S government agencies and international partners.
• CDC is the U.S. government’s lead agency for infectious disease outbreak preparedness and response activities and has a programmatic presence both in the United States and overseas. The goal of CDC’s global health work is to improve health outcomes and strengthen global health security by building the capacity of partner countries to detect diseases and respond to and stop health threats.
• Protecting Americans from infectious disease threats like COVID-19 is a top priority for the Global Health Center (GHC). GHC brings resources and knowledge built through partnership with other nations to fulfill our mission to improve the health, safety, and security of Americans and reduce morbidity and mortality worldwide.
• The Global Health Center (GHC) leads program implementation to address the highest burden disease threats in the world. GHC staff and programs work to:
  • Eradicate and eliminate diseases, including polio, measles, malaria, and neglected tropical diseases
  • End epidemics, including HIV and tuberculosis
  • Address emerging infectious diseases
  • Accelerate the introduction of lifesaving vaccines
  • Strengthen public health systems around the world
  • Plan, implement, and evaluate health programs with partner countries’ ministries of health alongside the U.S. State Department and other U.S. government agencies, including the United States Agency for International Development.
• CDC’s country offices across the globe extend the deep scientific and public health expertise that exists at CDC headquarters to partners in-country. CDC teams posted overseas provide unique peer-to-peer linkages to host-country ministries of health and support the work of other partners. Longstanding relationships established through CDC’s country offices foster technical collaborations that are brought to bear on a variety of health challenges.
• In coordination with other key programs at CDC, GHC works with host-country governments and implementing partners to strengthen public health systems; train public health personnel to prevent, detect, and respond to disease outbreaks; and implement science-based disease prevention and elimination programs. This public health capacity development builds the knowledge, skills, structures, systems, and leadership capabilities that ensure sustainable improvements in public health. Capacity building such as this is at the core of GHC’s technical partnerships and strategies.
• The COVID-19 pandemic presents multiple challenges, especially for countries with fragile health systems already working to address epidemics like HIV, malaria, measles, and other vaccine-preventable diseases. Along with additional pressures on health systems caused by the pandemic, COVID-19 mitigation measures such as physical distancing and enhanced sanitation create challenges for delivery of lifesaving prevention and treatment programs.  GHC’s programs are partnering with host countries’ ministries of health, U.S. government agencies, and other partners both in responding to COVID-19 and in adapting interventions for malaria, HIV, neglected tropical diseases, and vaccine-preventable diseases.
• In addition to the important work overseas to address public health threats where they start, GHC staff are translating lessons from decades of global health work to address the pandemic in the United States.
• Through deployments to local jurisdictions throughout the United States, GHC’s global health experts are sharing their knowledge and expertise in public health program implementation and real-time data analysis and interpretation to inform interventions at the state, tribal, and local levels.
• GHC trains disease detectives at the national and community level and is using CDC’s Global Rapid Response Team to serve as surge technical experts for CDC’s domestic COVID-19 response.
• The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the critical need for preparedness and emergency response and has brought into high relief the work that remains to be done before the next global disease outbreak.
• Looking forward, GHC will:
  • Strengthen our U.S.-based rapid response workforce through the Global Rapid Response Team and continue to expand our global disease detection and 24/7 monitoring and analysis capacities.
  • Strengthen global preparedness by supporting the development and sustainability of public health infrastructure through the National Public Health Institute program. National Public Health Institutes bring together public health professionals in a coordinated and collaborative structure to enhance disease monitoring and laboratory capacity so that countries can detect and respond to diseases with a ready, trained workforce.
  • Provide global leadership for CDC’s COVID-19 response through support of CDC’s International Task Force, building on relationships with country partners to implement key strategies including vaccine roll out, distribution, and surveillance.
  • Build preparedness and response linkages from global to domestic across the agency as part of GHC’s efforts to halt COVID-19 and prepare for the next, inevitable global health emergency.
  • Conduct scientific research of global health significance and ensure that this research is translated into public health action to achieve health equity and meet shared public health goals.
  • Intensify, innovate, sustain, and accelerate known, proven interventions and advance the science base to develop the public health tools to continue the fight against HIV, TB, malaria, neglected tropical diseases, and vaccine-preventable diseases, including measles and polio.
  • Work to extend CDC’s global reach to ensure coverage in all regions of the world and support the establishment of regional platforms to increase efficacy and sustainability of disease control and prevention efforts.

Sample Tweets

• Working alongside its partners, @CDCGlobal is helping countries across the world to prevent, detect, and respond to emerging disease threats. Read CDC’s new outbreaks report for more: https://www.cdc.gov/globalhealth/resources/reports/annual/2021/
• Coordination across U.S. government agencies, ministries of health, and other global health partners has been crucial to responding to #COVID19 and adapting interventions for #malaria, #HIV & vaccine-preventable diseases. #GlobalHealthAdapts Read more: https://www.cdc.gov/globalhealth/resources/reports/annual/2021/
• CDC Global is committed to strengthening #globalhealthsecurity across the world by building partner countries’ capacity to respond to disease threats before they spread. Read @CDCGlobal’s new outbreaks report: https://www.cdc.gov/globalhealth/resources/reports/annual/2021/
• Collaboration among @CDCGlobal, host-country governments, and partners has been critical to building global capacity to prevent, detect & response to health threats. https://www.cdc.gov/globalhealth/resources/reports/annual/2021/

Sample Facebook post

• A key component of global health security is stopping disease threats where they start. @CDCGlobal, coordinating with ministries of health, other U.S. government agencies, and global health partner organizations, works to build capacity around the world to respond to disease threats. Read more in CDC Global’s new outbreaks report: https://www.cdc.gov/globalhealth/resources/reports/annual/2021/

Sample Instagram post

• CDC Global coordinates with other countries’ ministries of health, U.S. government agencies, and a variety of partners to prevent, detect & respond to global health threats. A critical component of this #globalhealthsecurity collaboration is stopping disease threats where they start. Read more about this work in @CDCGlobal’s new outbreak report, at the link in our bio.
  • Link: https://www.cdc.gov/globalhealth/resources/reports/annual/2021/