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Who We Are

Mission Statement
History
Our Role Today
WHO Collaborating Centers
Emerging Infectious Diseases
Partnerships
Organizational Structure
The Future

 

Mission Statement

The mission of the Division of Parasitic Diseases (DPD) is to prevent and control parasitic diseases in the United States and throughout the world and to increase survival of children in developing countries. We accomplish this through surveillance and by conducting laboratory and epidemiologic research. We provide diagnostic, consultative, and epidemiologic services and training to

  • local, state, and federal agencies;
  • national, and international organizations; and
  • the public.

We carry out our mission in a workplace that promotes professional development and recognizes the importance of the person and the team; and through partnerships with other organizations, agencies, and persons.

History

CDC was founded in 1946, as a child of the Malaria Control in War Areas program of the U.S. Public Health Service, a World War II-era effort to protect Allied troops abroad and in parts of the United States from what is still one of the world's leading causes of death. CDC's historic mission is carried on today by many members of DPD's staff through a broad range of interdisciplinary malaria efforts. Together with numerous extramural partners, this group conducts malaria research, prevention, and education activities worldwide.

Our Role Today

The Division of Parasitic Diseases plays a vital role in investigating numerous parasitic diseases to help preserve public health both domestically and internationally.

Domestic Activities

DPD is a leader in the surveillance and control of parasitic diseases, including those that threaten U.S. water and food supplies, such as cryptosporidiosis and cyclosporiasis. In recent years, DPD spearheaded a major national campaign to educate the public, local and state health officials, and water utility operators about the dangers of waterborne cryptosporidiosis. Beginning in 1996 and each year since, the Division has led investigations of national and international outbreaks of cyclosporiasis. Surveillance for and control of parasitic diseases, including toxoplasmosis, is a top priority.

International Activities

In cooperation with The Carter Center of Emory University's Global 2000 Program and the World Health Organization (WHO) , DPD is helping to eradicate Guinea worm disease (dracunculiasis) and control river blindness (onchocerciasis). The Division also takes an active role in reducing and eliminating lymphatic filariasis in Haiti and other countries in the Western Hemisphere. DPDers actively research a full range of parasitic diseases worldwide, seeking to control and prevent malaria, schistosomiasis, Chagas disease, cysticercosis, echinococcosis, and a host of other diseases.

WHO Collaborating Centers

As a measure of its depth of international public health activity, DPD is home to five World Health Organization Collaborating Centers; three others are in process.

  • WHO Collaborating Center for African Trypanosomiasis
  • WHO Collaborating Center for Immunodiagnosis of Cysticercosis and Taeniasis
    • WHO Informal Working Group on Echinococcosis
  • WHO Collaborating Center for Research, Training, & Eradication of Dracunculiasis
  • WHO Collaborating Center for Control & Elimination of Lymphatic Filariasis
  • WHO Collaborating Center for Host & Parasite Studies on Malaria
  • WHO Collaborating Center for Production of and Distribution of Malaria Sporozoite ELISAs
  • WHO Collaborating Center for Evaluating and Testing New Insecticides
  • WHO Collaborating Center on Molecular Identification of Vectors

Emerging Infectious Diseases

Since the 1992 Institute of Medicine report Emerging Infections: Microbial Threats to Health in the United States, the intimate link between U.S. health and international health has been emphasized. The report defines emerging infectious diseases as those whose incidence in humans has increased within the past 2 decades or threatens to increase in the near future. DPD has been engaged in learning more about these new threats to public health. Target areas include international travel, globalization of the food supply and centralized processing of food; population growth and increased urbanization and crowding; and increased use of antibiotics and pesticides, which hastens development of resistance; and increased contact with wilderness environments that are reservoirs for insects and animals that harbor unknown infectious agents.

Partnerships

With its governmental, nongovernmental, and corporate partners, DPD addresses ongoing cross-cutting public health issues such as ensuring the safety of the U.S. blood supply; zoonotic diseases; diseases of travelers, immigrants, and refugees; and bioterrorism. It works with other Divisions, Programs, and Offices within its own Center at CDC, the National Center for Infectious Diseases, and a wide variety of programs in other Centers and Offices within CDC. Outside partners are numerous and run the spectrum from private foundations to other U.S. Government agencies, to international foreign governmental public health agencies, to individual academic investigators.

Organizational Structure

DPD is organized into five Branches, two Activities, two Overseas Field Stations, and the Office of the Director (see Organizational Chart). The Branches are Parasitic Diseases Epidemiology; Malaria Epidemiology (pending approval); Biology and Diagnostics; Entomology; and Immunology. The Activities are Data Management; and International Child Survival and Emerging Infections Program Support Activity. The Field Stations are located in Guatemala and Kenya. DPD has more than 100 full-time U.S. Governnment employees and about an equal number of visiting fellows, researchers, scientists, and trainees.

The Future

In coming years, DPD plans to continue its domestic and international research, surveillance, and prevention and control efforts, and to expand them to include potential new threats to public health, always ready to respond to parasitic disease outbreaks in the United States and abroad.

 

 

 

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This page last reviewed January 15, 2003

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
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