The Parasitic Diseases Branch's mission is to prevent and control parasitic diseases, both domestically and internationally, particularly foodborne, waterborne, and bloodborne (non-malaria ) parasitic diseases. The Branch has four teams: administrative; diagnostic and epidemiology; elimination and control; and water and environment. The administrative team provides support for the other three groups.

Diagnostic & Epidemiology Team

The team comprises both epidemiologists and laboratory scientists, dedicated to conducting investigations and surveillance of parasitic foodborne diseases (e.g., cyclosporiasis, toxoplasmosis) and parasitic bloodborne diseases (e.g., Chagas disease, babesiosis).

The team also provides clinical consultations and coordinates the parasitic disease drug service for patients needing "orphan" drugs.

Laboratory personnel provide diagnostic assistance, acting as final reference laboratories for state health departments. They also engage in development and evaluation of laboratory tests and rigorously pursue pathogen discovery. The team operates the award-winning DPDx program for diagnosis and education of parasitic organisms.

Elimination & Control Team

Working wth a wide array of domestic and international partnes, team epidemiologists and laboratory scientists seek to accelerate control and elimination of several Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) -- particularly lymphatic filariais, river blindness, trachoma, schistosomiasis, and the soil-transmitted helminths.

The team provides technical support to countries and global partners for training, tool development, implementation, monitoring, evaluation, and integration of NTD programs.

Contributions spanning decades have provided the foundation for the global stragegy to eliminate lymphatic filariasis. Leadership from this team has been instrumental in bringing control efforts for several of the NTDs to an international stage.

Water & Environment Team

The team strives to prevent illness, disability and death resulting from contaminated water used for drinking, recreation, sanitation, or other uses in the United States and abroad.

Using a multidisciplinary approach to waterborne disease prevention, the team provides surveillance; outbreak detection and response; applied epidemiologic and laboratory research; health education and training; and strategic partnership building.

They identify and track the causes and sources of waterborne disease, develop appropriate detection methods for use with clinical, water, and other environmental samples, and evaluate existing and new interventions. The team develops health communication messages that serve as the foundation for prevention and control recommendations