Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

For over 60 years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has worked tirelessly to address infectious diseases and other health hazards. Through the vision of Dr. Joseph W. Mountin, the Communicable Disease Center was created in 1946 as the successor to Malaria Control in War Areas (MCWA), a division of the Public Health Service based in Atlanta. The new agency, CDC, was charged with monitoring and controlling malaria, typhus, and other infectious diseases nationwide. Successful in addressing a wide array of health emergencies--including polio, measles, influenza, Legionnaires' disease, toxic shock syndrome, and the Ebola virus--one of the CDC's crowning achievements was its role in the global eradication of smallpox. Known today as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it is recognized as the nation's premier health promotion, prevention, and preparedness agency and a global leader in public health. Discover how a bad batch of polio vaccine brought a nationwide immunization campaign to a standstill, how the mysterious Legionnaires' disease sparked nationwide panic and how, today, CDC scientists are at the forefront of prevention research.