The National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases

Description

The National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID) works to protect people from antibiotic-resistant infections, foodborne outbreaks, emerging diseases, and zoonotic infectious diseases—diseases that spread between animals and people—such as Zika, Ebola, salmonella infection, and SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

Use of Funds

Funding supports the development of diagnostic tools and the investigation of, and response to, disease outbreaks internationally, which includes surveillance, infection control, vaccine delivery, and health care worker training.

Justification

• Globally, zoonotic infectious diseases sicken 2.5 billion and kill 2.7 million people every year.
• NCEZID played a critical role in conducting COVID-19 clinical diagnostic testing, helping the CDC create a framework for future outbreak responses.
• In 2020, NCEZID supported efforts to stop two Ebola outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo by:
  • Establishing health labs in remote zones.
  • Promoting strong case detection and contact tracing activities.
  • Supporting communication campaigns in local communities.
• Rabies kills an estimated 59,000 people each year, with Haiti having the highest rate of human rabies deaths in the Western Hemisphere at two deaths per week. In Haiti, a CDC program has increased animal rabies surveillance 18-fold, decreased the risk of dying from rabies by 49%, and increased adherence to post-bite rabies vaccination by 230%.