Emergency Outbreak Response

Sept. 17, 2024

When a disease outbreak occurs, every hour counts. That's why CDC's Division of Global Health Protection (DGHP) is on the frontlines, working with countries to quickly detect, respond to, and contain outbreaks and stop them before they can spread globally or reach the United States.

Epidemiologists conducting field research on infectious diseases.

What We Do

Woman wearing yellow personal protective equipment — Inside CDC’s mock Ebola treatment unit, two trainees review each other’s use of personal protective equipment.

To create a safer world for Americans and global communities alike, CDC experts collaborate with country partners to strengthen and accelerate their emergency response and ensure they are well-equipped to respond to disease threats wherever they occur, preventing them from reaching U.S shores.

For example:

Emergency outbreak response: CDC experts are on the ground in hotspots worldwide, building emergency response capacity, training rapid response teams, strengthening Emergency Operations Centers and mobilizing surge capacity to enable rapid and effective response efforts in times of crises.
7-1-7 strategy: As lead implementers of the global 7-1-7 strategy, we are helping countries increase both the speed and accuracy of their response to disease threats by detecting, notifying, and responding to public health emergencies all within seven days.
Policy, communications, and diplomacy: On the frontlines of disease outbreaks around the world, CDC/DGHP experts are leading effective public health communication strategies to ensure accurate, timely, and often life-saving information is disseminated to the public, healthcare professionals, and other critical stakeholders.
Global health security planning: We have longstanding experience helping countries improve their response to public health threats by helping them develop strong national plans and working with them to identify and address preparedness gaps.

Impact

Since 2005, our experts have helped build and bolster over 50 surveillance platforms, enabling the detection and response to nearly 6,000 outbreaks in 67 countries worldwide.
Since 2015, there have been 1,782 mobilizations of headquarters-based CDC experts for global health emergencies.
Since 2023, CDC's global health security experts helped respond to more than 250 outbreaks across the globe ꟷincluding hemorrhagic fevers, cholera, hepatitis, mpox, respiratory clusters, and measlesꟷ ensuring they never threatened American lives or harmed our economy.
In 2024, DGHP introduced the 7-1-7 strategy in 26 countries to enhance outbreak response allowing CDC to better contain health threats at their source before they can impact America.