CDC's response to natural
disasters, infectious disease outbreaks, and other emergencies that threaten the
health of people is facilitated through our Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS)
Program. In 1999, EIS officers helped local health officials identify cases of West
Nile encephalitis, establish risk factors for infection, and recommend control
measures for this disease, which was newly recognized in the Western hemisphere.
Modeled after the EIS program,
CDC has helped to establish the Field Epidemiology Training Programs in more than 20
countries. The Programs focus on applied epidemiology and increase the capacity of
countries to detect and contain disease outbreaks.
CDC takes best practices, such
as conflict resolution, anger management, and family-based interventions, and links
them to prevent violence among middle school students. Current efforts involve about
24 schools to assess the effectiveness of violence prevention efforts among this
critical age group.
The National Occupational
Research Agenda (NORA), launched in 1996 by CDC and its partners to improve worker
safety and health, provides a framework to guide occupational safety and health
research.
PulseNet, a national foodborne
disease surveillance network, detects outbreaks of foodborne illness due to a common
exposure occurring simultaneously in separate locations. PulseNet, now operating in
40 public health laboratories, can detect outbreaks of E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella.
CDC's National Breast and
Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program (NBCCEDP) delivers critical screening
services to underserved women. From 1991 through September 1999, this program
provided more than 2.5 million screening tests; 7,394 cases of breast cancer were
diagnosed. Cervical cancer was prevented in 31,000 women and over 600 cases of
invasive cervical cancer were diagnosed.
The National Biomonitoring
Program collaborates with academic institutions, other federal agencies, and other
partners to measure human exposure to toxic substances and the adverse effects of
that exposure.
