Our Impact

What to know

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) protects people in the United States and around the world by preventing, detecting, and responding to disease threats—anytime and anywhere

Photo of a person receiving a COVID-19 vaccine.

Our Strategic Framework

CDC's global work strengthens the knowledge, systems, and partnerships needed to find and face all types of health challenges. No matter the threat, we know we need the right data and surveillance, laboratories, workforce and institutions, prevention and response, innovation and research, and policy, communications, and diplomacy.

This is the purpose of CDC's Global Health Strategic Framework, which will guide all efforts across our agency going forward. By leveraging the full benefit of everything we're building globally, we can create a world where people in the United States and around the world live healthier, safer, and longer lives.

Download our 2023 annual report for additional stories, highlights, and impacts.

Delivering long-term value‎

When COVID-19 struck, many countries relied heavily on laboratory and workforce capabilities built through our prior investments in HIV, TB, antimicrobial resistance, enteric diseases, and global immunization and global influenza programs. And the benefit goes both ways – for example, next-generation sequencing and wastewater surveillance capabilities grown during the pandemic are now being used for other diseases, such as mpox and bird flu.

Data and surveillance

Person points at desktop computer with data visualization used to identify bacteria that might be resistant.
Training laboratorians to interpret results from the machine used to identify antimicrobials to which bacteria might be resistant. Credit: Roberto Dziura Jr

CDC is ensuring interoperable data and surveillance systems that detect, identify, and monitor disease threats and produce high quality, timely data to inform public health action.

CDC is charged with protecting people around the world from over 400 known diseases and conditions, as well as being prepared for the unknown, every day. CDC’s global data and surveillance work aims to ensure that countries can collect, analyze, visualize, use, and share high quality data on any disease or condition that impacts health. Public health surveillance provides an ongoing picture of the patterns of disease, which is critical to protecting people from existing and emerging threats.

Read stories of this core capability in action:

Laboratory

A microbiologist in a lab takes samples from a CDC-donated equipment.
A microbiologist works with CDC-donated equipment at the Scientific and Practical Center for Sanitary and Epidemiologic Expertise and Monitoring in Kazakhstan.

CDC is building public health laboratory systems that rapidly and accurately detect, track, and inform public health action.

Laboratories help confirm the presence of disease, pinpoint the cause of illness, and guide the right response to outbreaks. CDC’s global laboratory work supports these capabilities by training skilled workers, improving diagnostics and specimen transport systems, and increasing biosafety and biosecurity. The goal is to ensure pathogens can be accurately tested and identified with a fast turnaround, so the right actions can be taken to contain the threat.

Read stories of this core capability in action:

Workforce and institutions

Man holds a training certificate from the Field Epidemiology Training program.
CDC helped train over 1,170 disease detectives in 2023 through the flagship Field Epidemiology Training program.

CDC is training and developing a multisectoral global health workforce and coordinated essential public health services to prevent, detect, and respond to disease threats and integrate national public health functions.

In a crisis, the most important asset a country can have is people who know what to do. CDC’s global work to strengthen workforce and institutions bolsters the epidemiology, clinical, and laboratory workforce needed for today’s and tomorrow’s threats. Alongside partner countries, CDC is improving skills, building leadership, and supporting the institutions that house all of this expertise, creating a robust network of professionals who are ready to respond to whatever comes next.

Read stories of this core capability in action:

Prevention and response

Group of people stand while a person with personal protective equipment handles a group of birds.
CDC Director Mandy Cohen, U.S. Amabassdor to Cambodia W. Patrick Murphy, and CDC’s Global Health Center Director Kayla Laserson visit a live bird market in Cambodia.

CDC is developing systems, tools, and processes that enhance response to public health emergencies including implementation of prevention and mitigation strategies and countermeasures to prevent transmission and treat diseases.

Disease knows no borders, as clearly demonstrated by the COVID-19 pandemic, detections of polio in previously polio-free areas, and outbreaks of mpox and Ebola. CDC’s prevention and response work ensures that people have access to immunizations and non-pharmaceutical interventions to stay healthy. It also ensures countries have essential systems to act fast in any crisis, such as emergency operations centers staffed with skilled and ready responders.

Read stories of this core capability in action:

Innovation and research

A pamphlet, vials, and materials that are included in an Xpert TB Proficiency Testing program sample kit.
A Xpert TB Proficiency Testing program sample kit that includes CDC-developed Dried Tube Specimens and instructions and is shipped to CDC-supported testing sites around the world.

CDC supports research, implementation science, and public health evaluations to inform best practices for preventing diseases and countering health threats.

Research and innovation drive public health forward, extending the ability to protect people’s lives and livelihoods, no matter where they live. CDC’s global research and innovation work includes understanding why outbreaks are happening – uncovering who is getting sick, where, and why – and development of new diagnostics and assays that strengthen public health for generations to come.

Read stories of this pillar in action:

Policy, communication, and diplomacy

An adult sits across from a young student and points to a poster that reads "Know When to Wash Your Hands at School."
A nurse in Belize teaches key times to wash hands.

CDC aims to foster health diplomacy by building relationships that promote the use of evidence-based public health policy, communicate risk, and disseminate prevention messages in response to health threats.

CDC’s global policy, communication, and diplomacy efforts focus on translating data into public health action, ensuring people have the right information at the right time, and increasing trusted partnerships and diplomatic relationships that drive global health success.

Read stories of this core capability in action:

Global leader‎

CDC is a key leader in implementing flagship global public health programs such as the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), U.S. President's Malaria Initiative (PMI), the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), and Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA).

2023: By the numbers

Staffing

  • More than 60 country offices in 6 regions
  • 1,700 staff working globally on more than 400 diseases and conditions

Workforce

  • 1,170 disease detectives trained through the flagship Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP)
  • 250 emergency managers trained across 18 cohorts of the Public Health Emergency Management (PHEM) Fellowship

Outbreaks

  • 210 outbreaks tracked in 237 countries, territories and areas

Public health law

  • 500 people trained in global health law and legal preparedness across CDC, regional and partner networks

Antimicrobial resistance

  • 365 healthcare professionals trained on infection prevention and control measures as part of the response to a C. auris outbreak. Screening detected 59 patients with C. auris
  • 10 countries implementing the Enhanced Gonococcal Antimicrobial Surveillance Programme (EGASP) as part of the Global AR Laboratory and Response Network, with 5 added in 2023

HIV/TB

  • 12.6 million people living with HIV receiving lifesaving CDC-supported antiretroviral treatment
  • More than 445,000 pregnant women living with HIV receiving CDC-supported treatment to prevent mother-to-child-HIV-transmission
  • 10 million people started on TB Preventive Treatment since 2017 with CDC support, including nearly 1.5 million people in 2023 alone

Global Immunization

  • 115 million people received measles vaccine through supplementary immunization activities in 44 countries in 2022, helping to stop measles outbreaks where they start
  • 90% of the world is free of wild poliovirus as of May 2024, including 5 out of 6 WHO regions
  • 28 countries received support from global partners to introduce new vaccines, ensuring equitable access and preventing disease, disability, and death

Malaria

  • 700 million people supported as a co-implementer of the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) alongside USAID, including distribution of nearly 37 million insecticide-treated bed nets to protect people at risk of malaria
  • More than 1,300 inquiries addressed by the malaria clinical consult service. This is in addition to over 3,000 clinical and general public consults addressed by the Parasitic Diseases Hotline on diseases like chagas, cutaneous leishmaniasis, and trichomoniasis

Flu

  • 5.1 million doses of flu vaccine as well as technical assistance provided to ministries of health in 21 countries through the Partnership for International Vaccine Initiatives since 2013

Related links

Annual Report
Read CDC's 2023 global health annual report to learn about our stories, highlights, and impacts.
Our Global Presence
CDC has a network of regional and country offices in over 65 countries.
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Content Source:
Global Health Center