martes, 17 de diciembre de 2013

Press Release: CDC looks back at 2013 health challenges, ahead to 2014 health worries

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) sent this bulletin at 12/16/2013 01:27 PM EST

Press Release

CDC looks back at 2013 health challenges, ahead to 2014 health worries

Top achievements this year, five health threats in 2014

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s job is to detect health threats, stop outbreaks, and prevent illness and injury. As 2013 comes to a close America’s health protection agency looks back at top five health concerns in 2013 and previews the five health threats that loom for 2014.

CDC’s most important achievements in 2013 are the outbreaks that didn’t happen, the diseases that were stopped before they crossed our borders, and the countless lives saved from preventable chronic diseases and injuries.

“While our biggest successes may be the bad things that did not happen, careful assessment of what we did well – and what we might do better – is essential for continued success,” said CDC Director Tom Frieden, M.D., M.P.H.

CDC’s top accomplishments included the life-saving Tips tobacco education campaign; a pilot study supporting the technologies and methods of the proposedAdvanced Molecular Detection (AMD) initiatives; the Million Hearts campaign to prevent a million heart attacks; progress in curbing healthcare-associated infections; and contributions to the U.S. President’s Plan for Emergency AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which prevented the one millionth baby from being infected with HIV.

However, much more needs to be done. CDC sounded the alarm about the potential loss of antibiotic protection from bacterial infections, the slow uptake of the anti-cancer human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, the growing epidemic of prescription opiate addiction, the perfect storm of emerging infectious disease threats, and the final push for global polio eradication.