The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Summary
CDC runs the nation's public-health surveillance system on $7.706 billion in FY2026 budget authority and 10,169 employees -- while its PulseNet foodborne-outbreak network alone is credited with preventing an estimated 270,000 illnesses and saving $500 million a year, a $70 return for every dollar spent.
What is this organization?
What does it do?
's laboratories and state partners tested more than 223,000 specimens for H5 bird-flu strains since February 2024⧉, catching six of the 71 confirmed human cases through that surveillance alone. Its Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity program funds infectious-disease detection in 65 jurisdictions -- all 50 states, seven large localities, and U.S. territories⧉. In 2024, supported 220 healthcare-associated outbreak responses⧉, plus 54 more through 2025, alongside more than 235,000 antimicrobial-resistance lab tests and 11,000 port health protection actions that year.
What does it cost to run — money and people?
's FY2026 enacted budget authority came to $7.706 billion⧉, rising to $9.148 billion once Prevention and Public Health Fund and PHS Evaluation transfers are added, funding 10,169 full-time-equivalent staff⧉ -- 9,784 direct hires plus 385 reimbursable. Against the Census Bureau's 341.8 million U.S. residents⧉ as of July 2025, that core budget authority works out to about $22.55 per person.
View data as table
| Chronic Disease Prevention & Health Promotion | 1,432.8 | tobacco, diabetes, cancer, heart disease programs |
|---|---|---|
| HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STI & TB Prevention | 1,384.1 | domestic HIV, hepatitis, STI, TB programs |
| Immunization & Respiratory Diseases | 913.3 | vaccine programs, flu planning and response |
| Public Health Preparedness & Response | 913.2 | state/local emergency-preparedness cooperative agreements |
| Emerging & Zoonotic Infectious Diseases | 781.3 | outbreak surveillance, AR Lab Network, PulseNet, quarantine |
| Public Health Scientific Services | 767.5 | health statistics, surveillance, data modernization |
| All other CDC activities | 2,955.5 | injury prevention, global health, occupational safety, environmental health, birth defects/disability, cross-cutting support, buildings |
Why is it good for society?
's own numbers put a price on the counterfactual. Its PulseNet laboratory network⧉, which uses whole-genome sequencing to trace foodborne outbreaks to their source, is credited with preventing an estimated 270,000 illnesses and saving at least $500 million in medical costs and lost productivity in a year -- a $70 return for every $1 invested. That mechanism, repeated across 's other surveillance systems -- state health-department grants, H5 bird-flu monitoring, antimicrobial-resistance testing -- is the case for the budget: illnesses caught by surveillance before they become outbreaks.
- 's FY2026 enacted budget authority ($7.706 billion, 10,169 FTEs) works out to about $22.55 per U.S. resident -- the machinery that runs the nation's disease surveillance, public-health labs, and 65-jurisdiction ELC grant network.
- 's own PulseNet foodborne-outbreak network is credited with a $70-per-$1-invested return -- roughly 270,000 illnesses prevented and $500 million saved a year -- the kind of counterfactual 's budget documents cite as the payoff for its surveillance mission.
Your handles.* Suspect a vaccine side effect? File a report with the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), co-run by and . Have a public-health question? Contact CDC-INFO, the agency's public contact center, by phone, email, or web form. To comment on a proposed rule -- quarantine regulations, data-collection notices, and more -- see CDC's open dockets on Regulations.gov.
Sources(5) ▾
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention FY 2027 Justification of Estimates for Appropriations Committees (2026-04-09) — 's own FY2027 congressional budget justification (167pp) -- the source for 's statutory identity and mission statement (p.3), the Overview of Performance workload figures (H5 bird-flu surveillance, healthcare-associated outbreak responses, p.7), the Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases activity narrative including the ELC program's jurisdictional reach (p.34) and its 'By the Numbers' box (AR Lab Network testing, port health activity, PulseNet foodborne-outbreak prevention estimate, p.37), and the Detail of Full-Time Equivalent Employment table (p.147) this entry's KPI comes from. cdc.gov · original document
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention FY 2026 Operating Plan (2026-03-26) — 's own official operating plan implementing its FY2026 enacted appropriation -- the source for this entry's headline budget KPI: Budget Authority ($7,706,314 thousand, FY2026 Final) and the total Program Level once Prevention and Public Health Fund (PPHF) and PHS Evaluation Fund transfers are added ($9,147,633 thousand). cdc.gov · original document
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Our History -- Our Story (David J. Sencer CDC Museum) (2023-04-19) — 's own self-published agency history, maintained by its museum office -- source for the July 1, 1946 founding of the Communicable Disease Center in Atlanta, its original malaria mission, its founding budget and headcount, and the 1947 acquisition of the Clifton Road land that remains 's Atlanta headquarters campus today. cdc.gov · original document
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Announcement of CDC Name Change (MMWR) (1992-10-30) — 's own contemporaneous announcement, in its weekly MMWR publication, of the October 27, 1992 statutory renaming from Centers for Disease Control to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under the Preventive Health Amendments of 1992, with Congress directing that the acronym be retained. cdc.gov · original document
- U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Population Growth Slows Due to Historic Decline in Net International Migration (Vintage 2025 national population estimate) (2026-01-27) — The source for the July 1, 2025 U.S. resident population estimate (341.8 million) used as the per-resident KPI's denominator. Same document the good-citizen-cms, good-citizen-hhs-oig, and good-citizen-dod-oig entries already rely on. census.gov · original document
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is an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services⧉ that describes itself as "the nation's public health protection agency." It traces to July 1, 1946, when the Communicable Disease Center opened one floor of a small Atlanta building⧉ with a $10 million budget and fewer than 400 employees, tasked with stopping malaria. In 1947 the agency bought 15 acres on Clifton Road that remains its Atlanta headquarters. Congress formally renamed it the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the Preventive Health Amendments of 1992⧉, keeping the acronym for its recognition.