The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and CDC are longstanding partners in the effort to combat emerging diseases overseas. Twenty years ago, CDC and USAID collaborated with WHO and other partners to eradicate smallpox. Today, CDC and USAID are helping eradicate polio; reduce deaths from malaria, HIV/AIDs, TB, and acute respiratory infections; and improve global surveillance for emerging threats.

In many countries, CDC partners with USAID on evaluations of infectious disease problems related to wars, famines, or other disasters, as well as on development projects that involve epidemiologic or diagnostic research. CDC also helps implement USAID-supported programs in the four key areas of USAID’s emerging infectious disease initiative:

• Antimicrobial resistance: Developing and implementing strategies and interventions for detecting, studying, and containing emerging resistance problems.

• TB: Working for a sustainable reduction in the incidence of TB among key populations in selected countries through by the introduction of directly observed therapy short-course strategy (DOTS; see Box 6).

• Malaria: Improving the diagnosis and treatment of malaria; promoting effective preventive strategies; addressing the challenges of malaria in pregnancy; containing malaria outbreaks; responding to malaria during complex emergencies; slowing the emergence and spread of drug-resistant malaria; and accelerating the development of tools for malaria control.

• Disease surveillance and response: Improving public health capacity to obtain and use good quality data for disease surveillance and effective response to infectious diseases.

As part of the global strategy, CDC will intensify its efforts to work with USAID to develop mutually reinforcing ways of working together at the country level to maximize the impact of U.S. investments in global health.