On Aug. 1, 2014, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) initiated the Global Heath Security Agenda.  Global health security involves preventing, detecting, and responding to infectious disease threats globally. Th CDC works to protect the health, safety, and security of the American people and fight global health threats worldwide.

CDC stands at the forefront of global health security, leading efforts to prevent, detect, and respond to health threats that can impact communities worldwide. CDC leverages decades of expertise and innovation to safeguard global health, ensuring safer futures for all.

With over 60 overseas offices, CDC works to implement global health programming, which addresses hundreds of diseases, health threats, and conditions that are major causes of death, disease, and disability. Our experts around the world support emergency responses and also help countries build the capacity to stop local disease outbreaks from becoming global crises: bolstering laboratories to quickly detect deadly pathogens, improving surveillance to track emerging threats, and training disease detectives to investigate and swiftly contain outbreaks.

Building global health security can’t be accomplished alone. CDC assistance to partner countries has resulted in substantial improvements to their readiness to fight infectious disease threats. To accomplish global health security goals, CDC works closely with other U.S. government agencies, ministries of health, international organizations, and in-country partners. No matter the threat, protecting the health of Americans and people around the world is our #1 goal.

The Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) aims to strengthen the world’s ability to prevent, detect, and respond to infectious disease threats. More than 70 countries have signed onto the GHSA framework. The United States made a strong commitment to the initial five-year period of GHSA and continues to support its strategic priorities. GHSA 2028’s targets are for countries to take greater ownership of global health security efforts and improve health-security-related technical areas.