CDC Timeline 1940s – 1970s

1979

• CDC publishes the first Healthy People: The Surgeon General’s Report on Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. The report establishes for the first time ambitious, quantifiable objectives for improving the nation’s health, to be achieved by 1990
• A Lassa fever World Health Organization Collaborating Center is established in Sierra Leone
• CDC investigates health effects related to the Three-Mile Island nuclear incident
• CDC assumes lead responsibility in the U.S. Public Health Service for environmental emergency response
• Last recorded wild case of polio in the United States

1977

• CDC receives the report of the last case of naturally-acquired variola minor, the milder strain of the variola virus that causes smallpox, from the Merca District of Somalia
• NIOSH reorganizes; assumes new mine safety and health responsibilities, and publishes Occupational Diseases: A Guide to Their Recognition
• CDC isolates Legionella pneumophila, Legionnaires’ disease, the cause of a deadly outbreak in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

1975

• CDC establishes the Vessel Sanitation Program in cooperation with the cruise ship industry
• Dental Disease Prevention Activity is transferred to CDC, bringing with it the Fluoridation Program

• The Chronic Disease Division is established to target cancer, birth defects, and environmental health issues
• World Health Organization Collaborating Center for leptospirosis is established at CDC

• CDC creates a national gonorrhea control program to reverse a spiraling trend in the disease

• CDC begins to assist in visa and entry screening, immunization, and follow up of the health of Vietnamese refugees to the United States

1973

• National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) transferred to CDC from Health Services & Mental Health Administration
• Office of Biosafety is established at CDC
• CDC begins regularly responding to public health crises abroad by providing famine assistance in sub-Saharan Africa
• Lead-based paint poisoning prevention and urban rat control activities transferred to CDC
• CDC documents the first nationwide outbreak of Reye syndrome

1971

• CDC recommends discontinuation of routine immunization and vaccination requirements for smallpox in the United States
• CDC investigates lead exposure associated with an ore smelter in El Paso, Texas, increasing the scientific understanding of the effects of lead poisoning in children, as it can affect children’s developing nerves and brains
• CDC’s Phoenix laboratories discover that hepatitis B is sexually transmitted
• The National Center for Health Statistics conducts the first National Health Examination Survey with a large nutrition component added. The survey’s name is changed to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) Two subsequent surveys are conducted with the surveys becoming an annual event beginning in 1999

1969

• A national rubella immunization campaign begins
• NCDC opens its first biological containment lab to protect scientists while they work with deadly and infectious pathogens
• Inter-Regional Seminar on Smallpox Eradication is held in Lagos, Nigeria to discuss the progress of the Smallpox Eradication Program. A ceremony in Niamey, the Republic of Niger is held to celebrate the 100 millionth smallpox vaccination given in Africa

1967

• The Quarantine Service, one of the oldest units of the U.S. Public Health Service, is transferred to CDC
• CDC begins the Metropolitan Atlanta Congenital Defects Program (MACDP) a population-based tracking system for birth defects in collaboration with Georgia Mental Health Institute and the Emory University School of Medicine
• The Communicable Disease Center is renamed The National Communicable Disease Center (NCDC) and the title of Chief of the Center is changed to CDC Director
• Reproductive health activities first begin, (today’s Division of Reproductive Health) to include family planning and healthier mothers and babies

1965

• New surveillance systems added to the original National Surveillance Program of 1952 include measles, shigellosis, tetanus, and trichinosis
• The special Interagency Committee on Back Contamination (ICBC) is created to determine how to protect Earth from moon contamination
• A four-week smallpox campaign in Anapa, Brazil is launched to demonstrate and evaluate the jet injector equipment in field operations under a variety of conditions

1963

• Immunization Assistance Grant Program is established and CDC administers Vaccination Assistance Act through project grants. The program is designed to raise and maintain high levels of immunization against; poliomyelitis, diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough), and tetanus
• Smallpox Unit of the Surveillance Section is established in Bureau of Epidemiology
• The Aedes aegypti Eradication Branch is established to eradicate this mosquito from the Americas, as well as to protect against outbreaks of yellow fever and dengue fever
• All state health departments, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Department of Agriculture join CDC in establishing the Salmonella Surveillance Program

1961

• CDC takes over publication of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) from the National Office of Vital Statistics. MMWR is a weekly publication, containing a few short narrative reports and the weekly morbidity and mortality tables. It also publishes the annual “Summary of Notifiable Diseases”
• A field station to study fungal and viral diseases is established in Kansas City, Kansas
• An investigation into a cancer cluster expands CDC’s reach into chronic diseases

1960

• The Tuberculosis Program transfers from the U.S. Public Health Service to CDC. The Tuberculosis Laboratory was already in Atlanta at Lawson General Hospital, having moved there several years earlier
• The first National Health Examination Survey is conducted to collect data on the total prevalence of certain chronic diseases as well as the population distribution of various physical and physiological measures
• CDC opens new permanent headquarters buildings in Atlanta, Georgia

1959

• A fluorescent antibody test is developed for rabies and field trials demonstrate 100 percent accuracy
• A Staphylococcus Surveillance Unit is established to coordinate information, compile references and review directives and reports on hospital-acquired infections
• The Standard New Jersey light trap is modified to create a lightweight and portable mosquito trap to collect samples in swamps and remote areas where electricity is not available

1957

• An influenza pandemic emerges in Hong Kong with millions of cases and thousands of deaths. CDC quickly sets up an influenza surveillance unit, a joint operation of the Epidemiology and Laboratory Branches
• National guidelines for an influenza vaccine are developed
• The Venereal Disease Division is transferred from the U.S. Public Health Service to CDC, bringing two important innovations to CDC’s activities: a grant program and a new kind of employee, public health advisors
• The rapid plasma reagin (RPR) blood test for syphilis is developed at Venereal Disease Research Laboratory (VDRL) on the Chamblee campus. It is both a fast and accurate serologic test for syphilis

1955

• During the national polio immunization program, EIS officers trace 260 polio cases to improper vaccine production methods. As a result, the CDC establishes the Polio Surveillance Program
• CDC gains worldwide recognition for the quality and quantity of its contributions to the taxonomy of the Enterobacteriaceae, a family of germs that is difficult to treat because of its resistance to antibiotics
• The Senate subcommittee on Public Works approves construction of the new CDC Clifton Road Facility in Atlanta, Georgia

1953

• CDC reports first case of rabies in a bat
• The Communicable Disease Center National Surveillance Program is developed to maintain constant vigilance over communicable diseases, to respond immediately when an outbreak occurs
• Twenty EIS officers collaborated in the National Program for the Evaluation of Gamma Globulin in the Prophylaxis of Poliomyelitisexternal icon
• The U.S. Public Health Service becomes part of the newly created Cabinet-level Department of Health, Education and Welfare after the Federal Security Agency is dissolved
• First EIS investigations on environmental exposure to trichloroethylene and occupational exposure

1951

• Malaria is considered eliminated from the United States

• The Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) is established, recognizing the need for an adequate corps of trained epidemiologists who can be deployed immediately for any contingency, including chemical or biological warfare

• CDC begins a program to study public health insect problems connected with water resource development
• Two field stations are established: one to study the effect of economic poisons (pesticides) on humans, and the other to study tropical diseases

1949

• The Production Division is renamed the Audio-Visual Production Division, producing more than 50 health films for field training
• CDC’s Reference Diagnostic Service Center becomes available to all public health laboratories. Practicing physicians who have hard-to-identify specimens submit through their health departments
• CDC becomes a division of the Bureau of State Services of the U.S. Public Health Service, primarily concerned with assisting state health authorities
• The United States is declared free of malaria as a significant public health problem
• Last case of naturally-occurring smallpox is reported in the United States

1947

• CDC acquires the U.S. Public Health Service Plague Suppressive Laboratory which includes an epidemiology division
• Emory University deeds 15 acres of land to the Federal Government for the development of CDC headquarters on Clifton Road in Atlanta, Georgia
• CDC establishes the Veterinary Public Health Division, focusing on protecting and improving both animal and human health
• CDC offers disaster aid in response to multiple chemical explosions in Texas City, Texas. Subsequently, CDC is designated as the official response agency for future epidemics and disasters
• CDC begins a five-year study on what role flies have in the spread and transmission of poliomyelitis
• CDC is transferred from the State Relations Division and established as a field station under the immediate direction of the Chief of the Bureau of State Services of the U.S. Public Health Service