CDC: Heightened health security needed to prevent global spread of emerging diseases

CDC officials today called for a renewed examination of health security protocols and the role of public health in the face of emerging pathogens that can rapidly spread.

“While clinical medicine is crucially important, prevention in the community has been for last 100 years, and for the foreseeable future, the best buy in promoting health,” CDC Director Thomas Frieden, MD, MPH, said during a media teleconference. “There may be a misconception that infectious diseases are over in the industrialized world, but in fact infectious diseases continue to be and will always be with us. If we don’t come to balance with them effectively, we will continue to suffer unduly from preventable illnesses.”

Thomas Frieden

In a talk entitled “The Cough Heard Round the World,” presented at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Frieden highlighted three trends that have contributed to what he calls “a perfect storm of vulnerability”:

Increased global travel and trade;
Emerging infections, such as H7N9 or MERS coronavirus;
Antibiotic-resistant infections, such as tuberculosis; and
Intentional disease, or outbreaks associated with intentional release of a biologic agent.

Frieden cited that identifying, eradicating and preventing outbreaks of infectious diseases relies heavily on the basic tools of disease tracking and data analysis included in public health programs.

However, according to Frieden, use of next generation technologies has not kept pace with the growing risks of infectious disease outbreaks. Advanced molecular detection tools like molecular sequencing and bioinformatics are needed to identify and stop the spread of deadly pathogens, yet increased budget cuts, including the $580 million cut from CDC budget in 2013, have dramatically hampered CDC surveillance capabilities.

“For the next decade, the leading challenge for public health is to strengthen the collaboration between health care and public health,” Frieden said. “I think this opportunity is so important because with an increased focus not only on expanding coverage or reduced costs, but on increased quality and increased impact of prevention, we can really transform our health system.”