ob体育 Timeline 1940s – 1970s

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Take a minute to review many of ob体育’s momentous contributions to public health since it was organized in 1946 as the Communicable Disease Center.

 

2020s | 2010s |  2000s  |  1990s  |  1980s |  1970s  |  1960s  |  1950s  |  1940s

1970s

  • 1979
    • ob体育 publishes the first Healthy People: The Surgeon General’s Report on Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. The report establishes for the first time ambitious, quantifiable objectives for improving the nation’s health, to be achieved by 1990
    • A Lassa fever World Health Organization Collaborating Center is established in Sierra Leone
    • ob体育 investigates health effects related to the Three-Mile Island nuclear incident
    • ob体育 assumes lead responsibility in the U.S. Public Health Service for environmental emergency response
    • Last recorded wild case of polio in the United States
  • 1978
    • ob体育 publishes the first NIOSH/OSHA Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards
    • ob体育 reports the first drug-resistant tuberculosis outbreak; causative organisms are found resistant to the three most commonly-used drugs
    • ob体育 holds the first international conference on Legionnaires’ disease
    • An expanded maximum containment laboratory (hot lab) is opened to handle viruses that are too dangerous to handle in ordinary laboratories
  • NIOSH reorganizes; assumes new mine safety and health responsibilities, and publishes Occupational Diseases: A Guide to Their Recognition
    1977
    • ob体育 receives the report of the last case of naturally-acquired variola minor, the milder strain of the variola virus that causes smallpox, from the Merca District of Somalia
    • NIOSH reorganizes; assumes new mine safety and health responsibilities, and publishes Occupational Diseases: A Guide to Their Recognition
    • ob体育 isolates Legionella pneumophila, Legionnaires’ disease, the cause of a deadly outbreak in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  • ob体育 diagnoses two recruits at Fort Dix, New Jersey with swine flu and concludes that a deadly flu pandemic is on its way
    1976
    • ob体育 diagnoses two recruits at Fort Dix, New Jersey with swine flu and concludes that a deadly flu pandemic is on its way. A national immunization program is launched. No epidemic occurs, and before the immunization campaign is terminated, several people contract Guillain-Barré syndrome from the vaccine
    • Epidemiologists investigate a deadly outbreak of a respiratory disease among attendees at a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania convention
    • ob体育 sends disease detectives to investigate two large outbreaks in Zaire and Sudan of an unknown deadly hemorrhagic fever, a disease later known as Ebola
    • Environmental Services Division analyzes blood samples collected through NHANES to demonstrate that the level of lead in blood is related to exposure to gasoline. Based on that data, the Environmental Protection Agency implements policies that decrease the amount of lead in gas by half from 1976 – 1980, subsequently dropping levels of lead in blood by 37%, and Congress is persuaded to phase out leaded gas permanently
  • 1975
    • ob体育 establishes the Vessel Sanitation Program in cooperation with the cruise ship industry
    • Dental Disease Prevention Activity is transferred to ob体育, bringing with it the Fluoridation Program
    • The Chronic Disease Division is established to target cancer, birth defects, and environmental health issues
    • World Health Organization Collaborating Center for leptospirosis is established at ob体育
    • ob体育 creates a national gonorrhea control program to reverse a spiraling trend in the disease
    • ob体育 begins to assist in visa and entry screening, immunization, and follow up of the health of Vietnamese refugees to the United States
  • Through the Study of the Efficacy of Nosocomial Infection Control (SENIC), ob体育 begins to monitor trends in hospital-acquired infection rates
    1974
    • ob体育 establishes Bureau of Health Education, developing health curricula for schools
    • Liver cancer deaths are investigated. Vinyl chloride is discovered as a new occupational hazard, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration sets standards to provide worker protection
    • Through the Study of the Efficacy of Nosocomial Infection Control (), ob体育 begins to monitor trends in hospital-acquired infection rates
  • National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) transferred to ob体育 from Health Services & Mental Health Administration
    1973
    • National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) transferred to ob体育 from Health Services & Mental Health Administration
    • Office of Biosafety is established at ob体育
    • ob体育 begins regularly responding to public health crises abroad by providing famine assistance in sub-Saharan Africa
    • Lead-based paint poisoning prevention and urban rat control activities transferred to ob体育
    • ob体育 documents the first nationwide outbreak of Reye syndrome
  • 1972
  • 1971
    • ob体育 recommends discontinuation of routine immunization and vaccination requirements for smallpox in the United States
    • ob体育 investigates lead exposure associated with an ore smelter in El Paso, Texas, increasing the scientific understanding of the effects of lead poisoning in children, as it can affect children’s developing nerves and brains
    • ob体育’s Phoenix laboratories discover that hepatitis B is sexually transmitted
    • The National Center for Health Statistics conducts the first National Health Examination Survey with a large nutrition component added. The survey’s name is changed to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) Two subsequent surveys are conducted with the surveys becoming an annual event beginning in 1999
  • 1970
    • The National Communicable Disease Center (Nob体育) is renamed Center for Disease Control (ob体育)
    • The National Nosocomial Infections Surveillance system is established to monitor infections acquired in hospital settings
    • The Nutrition Program is transferred to ob体育, charged with assessing the occurrences of severe malnutrition in the United States and abroad
    • ob体育 studies the simultaneous administration of six antigens in vaccinations in Nigerian children
    • ob体育 starts the Birth Defect Monitoring Program, a nationwide hospital-based birth defects surveillance of about 25% of all births in the United States

1960s

  • ob体育 opens its first biological containment lab to protect scientists while they work with deadly and infectious pathogens
    1969
    • A national immunization campaign begins
    • Nob体育 opens its first biological containment lab to protect scientists while they work with deadly and infectious pathogens
    • Inter-Regional Seminar on Smallpox Eradication is held in Lagos, Nigeria to discuss the progress of the Smallpox Eradication Program. A ceremony in Niamey, the Republic of Niger is held to celebrate the 100 millionth smallpox vaccination given in Africa
  • 1968
    • Nob体育 (National Communicable Disease Center) becomes a bureau within the U.S. Public Health Service
    • Nob体育 investigates an unidentified, highly infectious respiratory disease in Pontiac, Michigan, later identified as Legionnaires’ disease
    • The State and Community Service Division is established, combining venereal disease, tuberculosis, and immunization branches
    • Nob体育 responds to its first major initiative in famine relief within Nigeria during the Biafran war, assisting local health officials in conducting nutrition and disease assessments
    • A tuberculosis surveillance system begins within the United States
    • Nob体育 responds to influenza pandemic triggered by the influenza A(H3N2) virus
  • 1967
    • The Quarantine Service, one of the oldest units of the U.S. Public Health Service, is transferred to ob体育
    • ob体育 begins the Metropolitan Atlanta Congenital Defects Program (MACDP) a population-based tracking system for birth defects in collaboration with Georgia Mental Health Institute and the Emory University School of Medicine
    • The Communicable Disease Center is renamed The National Communicable Disease Center (Nob体育) and the title of Chief of the Center is changed to ob体育 Director
    • Reproductive health activities first begin, (today’s Division of Reproductive Health) to include family planning and healthier mothers and babies
  • ob体育 announces a national measles eradication campaign at the American Public Health Association meeting
    1966
    • ob体育 announces a national measles eradication campaign at the American Public Health Association meeting
    • The International Malaria Eradication Program is moved to ob体育 from the Agency for International Development (AID)
    • is established to manage AID-funded Smallpox Eradication/Measles Control Program in African countries
    • ob体育 installs first computer system with 16,000 characters of memory. It is used to for batch business-oriented applications
  • 1965
    • New surveillance systems added to the original National Surveillance Program of 1952 include measles, shigellosis, tetanus, and trichinosis
    • The special Interagency Committee on Back Contamination (ICBC) is created to determine how to protect Earth from moon contamination
    • A four-week smallpox campaign in Anapa, Brazil is launched to demonstrate and evaluate the jet injector equipment in field operations under a variety of conditions
  • First jet injector studies with smallpox vaccine are conducted in the country of Tonga
    1964
    • The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) approaches ob体育 for help in working out methods that would ensure that germs from Earth do not get transported into space
    • ob体育 holds first meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (), to provide advice and guidance on the appropriate use of biologics and other preventive medical agents for effective disease control in the civilian population
    • Hospital Infections Unit is established as part of the epidemiology program
    • First jet injector studies with smallpox vaccine are conducted in the country of Tonga
    • ob体育 assigns an EIS officer to work on family planning, expanding the agency’s work to global population issues
    • First Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking and Health is published
  • The Aedes aegypti Eradication Branch is established to eradicate this mosquito from the Americas as well as to protect against outbreaks of yellow fever and dengue fever
    1963
    • Immunization Assistance Grant Program is established and ob体育 administers Vaccination Assistance Act through project grants. The program is designed to raise and maintain high levels of immunization against; poliomyelitis, diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough), and tetanus
    • Smallpox Unit of the Surveillance Section is established in Bureau of Epidemiology
    • The Aedes aegypti Eradication Branch is established to eradicate this mosquito from the Americas, as well as to protect against outbreaks of yellow fever and dengue fever
    • All state health departments, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Department of Agriculture join ob体育 in establishing the Salmonella Surveillance Program
  • 1962
    • ob体育’s Audiovisual Training Branch changes its name to the National Medical Audiovisual Facility, establishing it as the central audiovisual facility for the U.S. Public Health Service. In 1967, the group is renamed the National Medical Audiovisual Center and administratively transferred to the National Library of Medicine
    • ob体育’s Venereal Disease Program changes its name to National Syphilis Eradication program as efforts are placed on strengthening the epidemiologic process
    • ob体育 establishes a Laboratory Consultation and Development Section to upgrade laboratory performance and to promote increased standardization
  • 1961
    • ob体育 takes over publication of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report () from the National Office of Vital Statistics. MMWR is a weekly publication, containing a few short narrative reports and the weekly morbidity and mortality tables. It also publishes the annual “Summary of Notifiable Diseases”
    • A field station to study fungal and viral diseases is established in Kansas City, Kansas
    • An investigation into a cancer cluster expands ob体育’s reach into chronic diseases
  • Opens new permanent headquarters buildings in Atlanta, Georgia
    1960
    • The Tuberculosis Program transfers from the U.S. Public Health Service to ob体育. The Tuberculosis Laboratory was already in Atlanta at Lawson General Hospital, having moved there several years earlier
    • The first is conducted to collect data on the total prevalence of certain chronic diseases as well as the population distribution of various physical and physiological measures
    • ob体育 opens new permanent headquarters buildings in Atlanta, Georgia

1950s

  • Standard New Jersey light trap is modified to create the ob体育 light trap, a light-weight and portable mosquito trap to collect samples in swamps and remote areas where electricity is not available
    1959
    • A fluorescent antibody test is developed for rabies and field trials demonstrate 100 percent accuracy
    • A Staphylococcus Surveillance Unit is established to coordinate information, compile references and review directives and reports on hospital-acquired infections
    • The Standard New Jersey light trap is modified to create a lightweight and portable mosquito trap to collect samples in swamps and remote areas where electricity is not available
  • 1958
    • Epidemics of cholera and smallpox prompt the International Cooperation Administration (ICA) to send a ob体育 team of EIS officers to East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) to conduct an epidemiological study and to give epidemic aid
    • ob体育 investigates the first recorded epidemic of inhalation anthrax in the 20th century at a goat hair processing plant
    • ob体育 participates in a cooperative program to develop accurate, standard cholesterol measurement procedures. From this research the Cholesterol Standardization Program is developed
  • The Venereal Disease Division is transferred from the U.S. Public Health Service to ob体育, bringing two important innovations to ob体育's activities: a grant program and a new kind of employee, public health advisors.
    1957
    • An influenza pandemic emerges in Hong Kong with millions of cases and thousands of deaths. ob体育 quickly sets up an influenza surveillance unit, a joint operation of the Epidemiology and Laboratory Branches
    • National guidelines for an influenza vaccine are developed
    • The Venereal Disease Division is transferred from the U.S. Public Health Service to ob体育, bringing two important innovations to ob体育’s activities: a grant program and a new kind of employee, public health advisors
    • The rapid plasma reagin (RPR) blood test for syphilis is developed at Venereal Disease Research Laboratory (VDRL) on the Chamblee campus. It is both a fast and accurate serologic test for syphilis
  • 1956
    • The first practical use for the fluorescent antibody technique is utilized in the ob体育 laboratories to research communicable diseases of bacterial origin
  • During the National Polio Immunization Program, EIS officers trace 260 polio cases to improper vaccine production methods. As a result, ob体育 establishes the Polio Surveillance Program
    1955
    • During the national polio immunization program, EIS officers trace 260 polio cases to improper vaccine production methods. As a result, the ob体育 establishes the Polio Surveillance Program
    • ob体育 gains worldwide recognition for the quality and quantity of its contributions to the taxonomy of the Enterobacteriaceae, a family of germs that is difficult to treat because of its resistance to antibiotics
    • The Senate subcommittee on Public Works approves construction of the new ob体育 Clifton Road Facility in Atlanta, Georgia
  • National Rabies Control Activities Unit is established, providing a coordinated program for all aspects of the disease
    1954
    • National Rabies Control Activities Unit is established, providing a coordinated program for all aspects of the disease
    • The is expanded to include other professional disciplines besides medicine
  • 1953
    • ob体育 reports first case of rabies in a bat
    • The Communicable Disease Center National Surveillance Program is developed to maintain constant vigilance over communicable diseases, to respond immediately when an outbreak occurs
    • Twenty EIS officers collaborated in the National Program for the Evaluation of
    • The U.S. Public Health Service becomes part of the newly created Cabinet-level Department of Health, Education and Welfare after the Federal Security Agency is dissolved
    • First EIS investigations on environmental exposure to trichloroethylene and occupational exposure
  • 1952
    • The Epidemic Intelligence Service participates in 205 outbreaks including involvement in a lead paint investigation, marking the first time an EIS officer specialized in a noninfectious disease
    • Reorganization of the ob体育 reduces the number of branches into five well-defined spheres of activity: Epidemiology, Training, Technology, Laboratory, and Administrative
  • 1951
    • Malaria is considered eliminated from the United States
    • , recognizing the need for an adequate corps of trained epidemiologists who can be deployed immediately for any contingency, including chemical or biological warfare
    • ob体育 begins a program to study public health insect problems connected with water resource development
    • Two field stations are established: one to study the effect of economic poisons (pesticides) on humans, and the other to study tropical diseases
  • 1950
    • A team of ob体育 physicians, engineers, and entomologists is sent to Southeast Asia to assist in developing  and public health programs as part of an overall technical and economic assistance program
    • ob体育 begins to withdraw from active participation in the operational phases of the National Malaria Eradication Program and discontinues the Malaria Control Residual Spray Program, shifting interest to surveillance, supporting training programs, consultation and research studies with the states
    • A committee on air-borne disease studies is established, with emphasis on sampling techniques and devices adaptable to biological warfare defense

1940s

  • 1949
    • The Production Division is renamed the , producing more than 50 health films for field training
    • ob体育’s Reference Diagnostic Service Center becomes available to all public health laboratories. Practicing physicians who have hard-to-identify specimens submit through their health departments
    • ob体育 becomes a division of the Bureau of State Services of the U.S. Public Health Service, primarily concerned with assisting state health authorities
    • The United States is declared free of malaria as a significant public health problem
    • Last case of naturally-occurring smallpox is reported in the United States
  • 1948
    • investigation activities are conducted at the Virus & Rickettsia Laboratory in Montgomery, Alabama
    • ob体育 assists the Imperial Iranian Government in planning and establishing a national malaria control program
    • ob体育 conducts first training courses in Laboratory Diagnosis of Tuberculosis and Mycotic Diseases
    • ob体育 investigations expand to include, typhus, dysentery-diarrheal, fly control-poliomyelitis, viral encephalitis, plague, Q fever, brucellosis, creeping eruption, rabies, histoplasmosis, insecticides, and rodenticides
  • 1947
    • ob体育 acquires the U.S. Public Health Service  which includes an epidemiology division
    • Emory University deeds 15 acres of land to the Federal Government for the development of ob体育 headquarters on Clifton Road in Atlanta, Georgia
    • ob体育 establishes the Veterinary Public Health Division, focusing on protecting and improving both animal and human health
    • ob体育 offers disaster aid in response to multiple chemical explosions in Texas City, Texas. Subsequently, ob体育 is designated as the official response agency for future epidemics and disasters
    • ob体育 begins a five-year study on what role flies have in the spread and transmission of poliomyelitis
    • ob体育 is transferred from the State Relations Division and established as a field station under the immediate direction of the Chief of the Bureau of State Services of the U.S. Public Health Service
  • 1946
    • July 1, , a program within the U.S. Public Health Service, transitions into the Communicable Disease Center (ob体育)
    • ob体育 stations the Laboratory Division at the Lawson Veterans Administration Hospital in Chamblee, Georgia

 

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