Our 2025 Priorities

Detecting and responding

NCEZID is best known for responding to outbreaks of infectious diseases, from foodborne outbreaks to global-scale epidemics like Ebola and COVID-19. Preparing for infectious disease threats, whether they are naturally occurring or the result of an intentional release, is one of the mission-critical activities of NCEZID. Our priorities are driven by the need to protect against the growing global threat of infectious diseases, which is constantly evolving in response to our changing world.

We are committed to respond to the next infectious disease threat through the following 2025 priorities:

• Enhance emerging infectious disease readiness and response to protect Americans from emerging and high consequence pathogens
  • Ensure we have staff, structure, and capacity to respond
  • Implement data readiness efforts to support predictive science and rapid sharing of information using common data platforms
  • Enhance laboratory readiness, including diagnostic capabilities at CDC and in public health laboratories
  • Work across the continuum of global to domestic to detect and contain infectious disease threats at their source
• Establish a sustainable, representative wastewater surveillance network to rapidly detect and respond to infectious disease threats
  • Support continued wastewater surveillance capacity in U.S. states
  • Maintain data analysis and visualization tools and coordination across wastewater surveillance partners
  • Utilize wastewater Centers of Excellence to support workforce development and innovation to improve data sharing, analysis and response
• Protect Americans from the threat of antimicrobial resistance (AR)
  • Work toward reducing deaths due to AR by 10% by 2030 utilizing the United Nations' recently approved metric for addressing the global challenge of antimicrobial resistance
  • Support antimicrobial resistance detection programs globally through the Global Antimicrobial Resistance Laboratory and Response Network, the Global Action in Healthcare Network, and PulseNet International
• Leverage Advanced Molecular Detection (AMD) to ensure readiness and response for infectious disease threats at the national, state, and local levels
  • Improve the laboratory workforce through bioinformatics and molecular testing training and fellowships
  • Coordinate with CDC partners to develop methods and infrastructure, and establish cross-cutting, pathogen-nonspecific approaches for genomic detection of emerging infectious diseases
  • Engage state and local partners and the five Pathogen Genomics Centers of Excellence to support innovation and technical capacity in pathogen genomics, molecular epidemiology, and bioinformatics
• Strengthen the U.S. Port Health Protection System and detection of emerging infections among travelers
  • Implement traveler-based genomic surveillance (TGS) at strategic ports of entry for early warning and mitigation of infectious disease threats to the United States
  • Support response capabilities at Port Health Stations to prevent, limit, and respond to the introduction of communicable diseases of public health concern into the United States and reduce the spread of diseases through U.S. communities and globally