"State of the CDC" hits the agency's high notes

A glossy report shows a shift in style that many praise. But some fear a new agency emphasis comes at the cost of disease prevention.

By Victoria Stagg Elliott, AMNews staff. Dec. 8, 2003.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has had a busy year.

The agency not only battled the emergence, re-emergence and importation of unfamiliar infectious diseases, it also focused on long-time adversaries such as HIV, autism, diabetes and obesity. It's all detailed in the first ever "State of the CDC" issued in November.

"The CDC consistently provided a strong return on the American people's investment, acting swiftly and decisively to control outbreaks like SARS, monkeypox, and West Nile virus while carrying out sound, science-based programs to reduce illness and death from conditions like heart disease and obesity," said CDC Director Julie Gerberding, MD, MPH.

Experts, however, say the CDC's past year really hasn't been that much different from previous ones. The agency has always done this kind of top-notch public health work. What has changed is that it never used to brag.

"It's a great idea to do something like this report because no one realizes what a great job the CDC does," said Lee B. Reichman, MD, MPH, executive director of the New Jersey Medical School's National Tuberculosis Center in Newark. "Public health has an image problem."

The CDC is reversing that perception by letting everyone read all about it in a glossy report -- a document more akin to something published by a multinational corporation than a public health entity. Although the CDC's annual budget of $7 billion certainly puts it in the Fortune 500 realm, it's never quite presented itself in this manner, showcasing the return taxpayers are getting on their investment.