How the CDC’s New Security Strategy Will Manage Emerging Health Threats

The White House released The U.S. Government Global Health Security Strategy (GHSS) 2024, which establishes how the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will play a pivotal role in a new whole-of-government approach in protecting U.S. citizens during the next pandemic.  

“Global health security is national security, and CDC is proud to contribute its expertise, investments, and rapid response to protect the health and safety of the American people and the world,” said Mandy Cohen, M.D., M.P.H, CDC director. “CDC’s decades of global health investments, training, and scientific diplomacy strengthen global capacity in labs, data, emergency response, and the public health workforce. The U.S. is a safer place by allowing us to detect and rapidly respond to outbreaks at their source.”

The new strategy is in direct response to the fact that health systems continue to be overburdened following years of responding to COVID-19 along with several simultaneous global health emergencies, including mpox, Ebola, cholera, polio, dengue, and malaria. In general, these challenges have exhausted health systems, taxed health workers, and prevented work on other challenges such as HIV and vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs), such as measles.

Instead, the GHSS plans to:

• Implement and coordinate CDC programs to build capacity relevant to health security domestically and globally.
• Provide technical and scientific expertise in public health to partner countries, bilateral- and multilateral-institutions, and U.S. leaders to achieve global health security goals.
• Provide technical and scientific expertise in public health to partner countries, bilateral- and multilateral-institutions, and U.S. policymakers and leaders to assess and develop health security capacity and respond to health threats.
• Play a leading role in addressing infectious disease outbreaks.
• Use data, modeling, and analytics to prevent, detect, and respond to outbreaks in real-time and to drive effective decision-making.
• Maintain staff internationally who advance collaboration with multisectoral partners and serve as a first line of defense against infectious diseases originating overseas.

In line with GHSS, CDC continues to help build health security capacity. This includes through CDC’s new Global Health Strategic Framework that seeks to:

• Stop health threats at their source before they spread to the U.S.
• Contain disruptive outbreaks.
• Use global data for disease prevention and mitigation programs in the U.S.
• Save lives and improve health globally.

The full GHSS strategy document can be found at U.S. Global Health Security Partnerships – United States Department of State.