Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Agency

1. agency of the Department of Health and Human Services responsible for the prevention and control of disease and for health promotion and education. The CDC was established in Atlanta as the Communicable Disease Center in 1946, charged with preventing the spread of malaria. Under its present name, the agency monitors the spread of all infectious diseases within the U.S. and provides assistance to other countries and agencies in disease prevention and control. It also provides expertise and assistance to other federal, state, local, and private disease prevention agencies. Additionally, it develops and conducts environmental health and general health promotion programs.