[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 97 (Thursday, June 27, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1198-E1199]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL (C.D.C.)

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JOHN D. DINGELL

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 27, 1996

  Mr. DINGELL. Mr. Speaker, on July 1, the Centers for Disease Control 
and Prevention [CDC] will celebrate its 50th anniversary. This is an 
important celebration for the agency, of its own signal achievements 
over this half-century, but it is also a time for all of us to 
celebrate the contributions of this small agency to public health in 
America and worldwide.
  Unlike many other excellent health institutions, such as the National 
Cancer Institute or the Food and Drug Administration, CDC is only 
infrequently in the limelight. But it is that very fact which provides 
confidence, for the lack of CDC headlines means that we are not facing 
a crisis requiring urgent expert action. When we do not hear about the 
epidemiologists, worker safety specialists, immunization gurus, 
laboratory scientists, and infectious disease experts of CDC, it is 
because they are doing quietly and efficiently what they have done 
every day for the last 50 years--protecting the public health.

[[Page E1199]]

  But when we do hear about CDC, we know we are facing an urgent 
crisis--but that the crisis is being handled expertly--whether it is 
occurrence of a mysterious infectious disease, later called 
Legionnaires' disease in Philadelphia, or the first case of AIDS in San 
Francisco; illness and death from food contaminated with E. coli in the 
States of Washington, California, Idaho, and Nevada; measles epidemics 
in major metropolitan areas across the United States; cryptosporidium 
in Milwaukee drinking water; serious illness from oysters in Florida; 
an outbreak of hanta virus in New Mexico, Utah, Arizona, and Colorado; 
the reemergence of tuberculosis as a serious health risk, especially in 
New York, Miami, and Los Angeles; or lead poisoning in children in 
Chicago and Rhode Island.
  While CDC has been catapulted only recently onto suburban movie 
screens because it inspired ``The Hot Zone,'' the agency has, over its 
50-year history, cooled off many hot zones with its unique expertise 
and capability. CDC assists governments and health officials all over 
the world in preventing and controlling disease and responding to 
crises that literally threaten the health and safety of entire 
populations of people--ebola virus in Zaire; deadly chemical release in 
a Tokyo subway; disease-causing radioactive fallout in the Marshall 
Islands; outbreaks in Spain of illness from contaminated cooking oil; 
worldwide immunization efforts to prevent deadly childhood and adult 
illnesses such as smallpox--now completely eradicated because of these 
efforts; typhoid fever, and polio.
  Though its origins--in Atlanta, GA--and its early mission were 
modest--the control of malaria in war areas--CDC quickly gained 
strength and prominence as the world's emergency response team, as it 
formed critical and productive relationships with health officials 
throughout the United States and around the world. Its physicians and 
epidemiologists have been involved in public health activities ranging 
from the virtual eradication of polio from the Western hemisphere to 
quarantining the astronauts who first walked on the moon and examining 
the now-museum-housed moon rocks. CDC specialists have worked with 
American companies to help identify and solve workplace hazards and 
prevent worker injuries. The agency's specialized laboratories provide 
unique, state-of-the-art analyses of dangerous viruses, and 
unidentified toxins. The National Childhood Immunization Initiative, 
designed to achieve full, age- appropriate vaccination of all American 
children, to prevent completely preventable childhood illnesses such as 
whooping cough, measles, mumps, rubella, and polio; a nationwide 
program for early detection and control of breast and cervical cancer; 
and a dynamic education program targeted at smoking, the Nation's No. 1 
preventable cause of illness, are all initiatives launched and still 
maintained by CDC.

  Today, as it moves into the 21st century, and the second half of its 
first century, CDC is focused on the future of public health, and 
refocusing efforts to direct attention at problems that are just 
beginning, or are growing--new infectious diseases; reemergence of 
diseases once thought to be controlled, such as drug-resistant TB; 
prevention and control of birth defects and genetic diseases, such as 
fetal alcohol syndrome, mental retardation, and spina bifida; 
identification and control of environmental factors that lead to 
serious adverse health effects, such as radiation and environmental 
lead; preventing disability and early death from injury and chronic 
disease; collecting and analyzing data that help to understand better 
how to protect and promote health; and refocusing a variety of 
activities on special health problems of teenagers and women.
  I am proud to have supported the work of CDC over many of its 50 
years. Congress and the American people have entrusted one of our most 
precious possessions to this remarkable agency--the public health. 
Today, CDC employs a small cadre of 6,300 dedicated people with a big 
and critically important task. CDC has never betrayed our trust, and 
has lived up to our expectations. I expect no less in the future. I 
congratulate CDC on this 50th birthday, and wish the agency at least 50 
more, equally productive years.

                          ____________________