CDC Timeline

Take a minute to review many of CDC’s momentous contributions to public health since it was organized in 1946 as the Communicable Disease Center.

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2020s

Timelineicon
2020
- CDC maps America’s high levels of physical inactivity
- Public health screenings begin at three U.S. airports for 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV)
- CDC activates Emergency Operations Center (EOC) on Monday, January 20, to support public health partners responding to the outbreak caused by a novel (new) coronavirus first identified in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China
- CDC confirms person-to-person spread of new coronavirus in the United States
- A CDC-developed laboratory test kit to detect 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) begins shipping to select qualified U.S. and international laboratories
- The World Health Organization (WHO) names the new disease COVID-19
- CDC launches the SARS-CoV-2 Sequencing for Public Health Emergency Response, Epidemiology, and Surveillance (SPHERES) consortium, expanding the use of whole-genome sequencing (WGS) of the COVID-19 virus
- June 25 marks the end of the 2018 Ebola outbreak in the eastern part of DRC
- CDC discovers active ingredient, nootkatone, for development of new mosquito/tick insecticides and repellents
- CDC launches a national campaign, Hear Her, which highlights warning signs of pregnancy-related death
- Africa is declared free of wild poliovirus, the second virus eradicated from the continent since smallpox 40 years previously
- Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP) celebrates its 40th anniversary
- CDC investigates a multi-state outbreak of Salmonella Stanley infections linked to wood ear mushrooms