The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is part of the U.S Public Health Service, with a mission to use the best scientific information to monitor, investigate, control and prevent public health problems.
Using the tools of epidemiology and laboratory science, CDC provides scientific assessment of public health threats.
CDC works closely with state health departments to monitor the frequency of specific diseases and conducts national surveillance for them.
CDC provides expert epidemiologic and microbiologic consultation to health departments and other federal agencies on a variety of public health issues, including foodborne disease, and it stations epidemiologists in state health departments to help with the surveillance and investigation of many problems.
CDC can also send a team into the field to conduct emergency field investigations of large or unusual outbreaks, in collaboration with state public health officials.
CDC researchers develop new methods for identifying, characterizing and fingerprinting the microbes that cause disease.
We translate laboratory research into practical field methods that can be used by public health authorities in states and counties.