CDC

American  

abbreviation

1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: the branch of the U.S. Public Health Service under the Department of Health and Human Services charged with the investigation and control of contagious disease in the nation.

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CDC British  

abbreviation

1. (in the US) Center for Disease Control

2. Commonwealth Development Corporation

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CDC Cultural  

1. A government agency headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, which is responsible for the control and suppression of infectious diseases. It offers a national information database on infectious disease and national support to the health care community by providing research and control measures in response to imminent health threats, such as epidemics.

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Usage

What does the CDC mean? The CDC stands for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. With its headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, the CDC is an agency of the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The core mission of the CDC is to promote and protect the public health of the United States by preventing and controlling health threats, notably the spread of infectious diseases, such as Ebola, swine flu, and types of coronavirus. The CDC works to fulfill this mission by conducting vital scientific research, compiling critical health statistics, carrying out important health surveillance, and delivering educational programs and services to the public. Other key activities of the CDC focus on environmental health (under its National Center for Environmental Health, or NCEH) and occupational health and safety (under its National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety, or NIOSH). Non-infectious diseases, including cancer, diabetes, and obesity, are also focuses of the CDC, as are birth defects and developmental disabilities. The CDC was founded in 1946 in Atlanta by physician and lifelong public health servant Joseph Mountin. It was known as the Communicable Disease Center (which may help explain why we continue to abbreviate the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as the CDC, not CDCP). Its original mission, as was true of its preceding agencies, was helping to fight the spread of malaria in the United States. The CDC soon after expanded to tackle such highly contagious diseases as polio and smallpox. While the CDC has since become one of the world’s leading epidemiological centers, the Communicable Disease Center was formed as just a minor branch of the U. S. Public Health Service (USPHS), a division of HHS. Its original budget was a mere $10 million and under 400 people made up its staff—compared to the billions in its budget and the thousands on its staff today. The CDC also has a number of offices outside Atlanta, from California to Ohio and Puerto Rico, as well as quarantine stations throughout the United States. It maintains a website (cdc.gov) that offers essential information and updates on diseases and emergency preparedness. Other divisions of the USPHS include the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The CDC is one of several federal institutions, such as NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), that are best known by their abbreviated names. The word centers in Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is plural because the CDC oversees a number of specialized centers and institutes, such as NIOSH.

Example Sentences

“Hospitals are fighting with no tools at all,” Jean Kaseya, director-general of Africa CDC, said at a briefing Saturday in Kampala, in neighboring Uganda.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 24, 2026

That said, you can get additional benefits by doing up to two times the CDC exercise guidelines—but you will get 70% to 80% of the benefits by just meeting them, Dr. Joyner says.

From Barron's • May 23, 2026

That doesn’t explain why the CDC seemed to be largely in the dark about the current Ebola outbreak until recently, although it’s the fourth largest on record.

From Salon • May 20, 2026

The CDC didn’t identify the person or specify the nature of their work.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 18, 2026

An Algol-descended language designed by Niklaus Wirth on the CDC 6600 around 1967-68 as an instructional tool for elementary programming.

From The Jargon File, Version 4.2.2, 20 Aug 2000 by Steele, Guy L.