Due to funding cuts and staff firings, laboratories that received support from the CDC in more than 190 countries that track diseases like measles and rubella are at risk. These laboratories allow the global community to stay ahead of microbes that could lead to future pandemics.
Date: 1/26
Region: Global
Country: Global
Topic: Health
Policy Lens: Global Health Security
Entry Type: System Impact
Additional Context: Over decades, CDC has supported countries in areas such as implementing health programs, placing millions of people on HIV treatment as an implementing agency for PEPFAR, conducting research, building up laboratories, training epidemiologists, and supporting outbreak response. CDC also implemented funds from USAID, including the bulk of its work on malaria.
Continued funding cuts, global health staff reductions, and changes in U.S. policy put these programs at risk of closure. Trust in the CDC, which premised U.S. engagement and collaboration in the global health ecosystem, has likely eroded.
According to a former director, CDC’s global immunization division is being dismantled. This division was providing about half of the public health professionals to WHO’s headquarters in Geneva — all of whom were abruptly pulled out of those roles.
Source: Devex