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Global Health R&D at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

What does CDC do for global health R&D? What does CDC do for global health R&D?

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) protects people at home and abroad through disease surveillance, rapid outbreak response, and research and development (R&D) of diagnostics, drugs, and other technologies to combat infectious diseases. Not only does CDC’s research advance new diagnostic, prevention, and surveillance technologies, it also evaluates the effectiveness of tools already in use to determine future R&D needs. CDC’s Global Health Center and National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases leads much of the agency’s global health R&D work.

Why is CDC’s role in global health R&D important??Why is CDC’s role in global health R&D important?

CDC has unique expertise and capacity to detect, track, and contain infectious disease outbreaks and develop the right technologies to advance these efforts. CDC’s work is critical to protecting Americans and people around the world from emerging epidemics, as well as monitoring the impact of current tools and global health programs to maximize future investments.

CDC support has helped advance CDC support has helped advance:

9
promising products in late-stage development

R&D investment by health area R&D investment by health area

Contributions to global health R&D

IMPACT OF INVESTMENT

MALARIA

MALARIA

Evaluation of the efficacy of insecticide-treated bednets and the level of damage they can sustain before requiring replacement, which is increasing the impact of bednet programs while also reducing costs.

TB

TB

Development of simplified, better-tolerated tuberculosis (TB) treatments through the Tuberculosis Trials Consortium, which have dramatically reduced TB treatment times and costs.

EBOLA

EBOLA

Development, evaluation, and distribution of rapid diagnostics for Ebola during the 2014–2015 outbreak, including a test that can provide results from a finger prick in just four minutes.

RABIES

RABIES

Creation of a rapid diagnostic technique for rabies that provides results within an hour, requires no refrigeration, and reduces costs by 90 percent and ongoing development of safer, more effective rabies vaccines for humans and animals.

CAPACITY STRENGTHENING

CAPACITY STRENGTHENING

Training of more than 20,500 disease detectives in more than 80 countries through its flagship global Field Epidemiology Training Program.

COVID-19

COVID-19

Ongoing validation of COVID-19 diagnostic tests and surveillance activities to detect and characterize new variants of the virus, including by leveraging cutting-edge advanced molecular detection capabilities.

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