Building Public Health Capacity for Harmful Algal Blooms

Overview

Harmful algal blooms are a One Health issue that impacts the health of people, animals, and our shared environment. For this reason, preventing and responding to harmful algal bloom events and associated illnesses require interdisciplinary collaboration between CDC and fellow human health, animal health, and environmental health partners.

CDC works with federal, state, local, and territorial partners to reduce the health impact of harmful algal blooms. Key CDC efforts to build capacity for harmful algal blooms include support from the Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity (ELC) cooperative agreement and the One Health harmful algal bloom Community of Practice (CoP).

Epidemiology and laboratory capacity funding

CDC provides financial support and technical assistance to state, local, and territorial health departments annually through the ELC Cooperative Agreement. As part of the ELC program, CDC supports public health surveillance, response, and mitigation of harmful algal bloom-associated illnesses.

From 2019–2023, CDC awarded over 4.8 million dollars to selected state health departments to support ongoing harmful algal bloom activities. This funding helps recipients:

• Improve surveillance, response, and reporting of harmful algal blooms and associated human and animal illness.
• Implement public health interventions and tools to prevent harmful algal bloom-associated illness.

CDC has also supported state waterborne disease surveillance, which included harmful algal bloom-associated illnesses and outbreaks, as part of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. From 2013–2019, CDC provided staffing support to states through the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists and financial support through ELC.

Funded partners

In 2023, the following 16 states received ELC funding for harmful algal blooms.

Read success stories highlighting the work ELC-funded partners are doing to help prevent and respond to harmful algal bloom-associated illnesses.

One health harmful algal bloom community of practice

CDC coordinates the One Health harmful algal bloom Community of Practice (CoP) to increase communication and collaboration among state and federal partners with interest in public health activities related to harmful algal blooms. They meet regularly to share knowledge and activities related to surveillance, response, and mitigation of harmful algal bloom-associated illnesses.

The CoP provides an informal platform for professionals to connect and helps CDC and other CoP participants:

• Define regional and national needs related to surveillance, response, and public health mitigation of harmful algal blooms.
• Inform federal public health priorities related to harmful algal blooms.
• Share and solicit expertise, including useful resources, to address ongoing or new challenges related to harmful algal blooms.