Centers for Disease Control
Organizational Report
Centers of Disease Control and Prevention
The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has a very interesting history and road to development to be what it is today, According to John Parascandola of Public Health Reports, the CDC was created from the foundation of a wartime program called Malaria Control in War Areas (MCWA). The MCWA was located in Atlanta, GA because of its proximity to the south and the location of a lot of military encampments. The responsibility of the MCWA focused on mosquito control, because they were the transporters of Malaria between people. The MCWA's responsibilities soon expanded to encompass yellow fever, dengue, and typhus control (Parascandola, 1996).
As World War II came to and end, the MCWA staff wanted to keep their organization alive. Some members envisioned becoming a center to eradicate communicable diseases. They were dedicated to serving the need of the states, and so the CDC was proposed. On July 1st, 1946 the Communicable Disease Center was founded. Today they keep the same abbreviation of CDC, but have changed the name to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Parascondola, 1996).
The CDC has went through many name changes since it was founded in 1946. According to the Guide to Federal Records, the Center was first renamed June 1, 1967 to the National Communicable Disease Center (NCDC). A few years later, on June 24, 1970 became known as the Center of Disease Control. About a decade later they changed the name to reflect the fact that they were several agencies and became the Centers of Disease Control on October 14, 1980. The final name change came about in 1992 to the current name of Centers of Disease Control and Prevention. (2010). Although they changed names Congress decided that the “CDC” acronym would still be used because of the recognition the name (CDC, 1992).
The CDC's...