The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) discussed the top five public health priorities which will be its focus for 2014.
The Washington Post was able to interview CDC Director Thomas Frieden. He talked about the federal agency’s health priorities for the coming year which include human papilloma virus (HPV), antibiotic resistance, painkiller abuse and overdose, polio, and foreign diseases.
The CDC is aware that of the need to increase HPV vaccinations since the program was stuck at 30 percent unlike other new vaccines which steadily increases by 10 percent each year. One dose of HPV vaccine may prevent cervical cancer although health experts recommend three doses for full protection from the sexually-transmitted infection.
Another concern is the battle to overcome the increasing problem of antibiotic resistance known to have caused the death of 23,000 Americans every year. Frieden told the Washington Post: “There are now organisms out there that are resistant, potentially, to all the drugs that we have. And they’re spreading. We need to scale up the work that we’re doing at CDC to support doctors and hospitals to have more rational and more effective strategies for treating patients, so that we can treat infections that could be fatal but don’t waste the antibiotics that we need to preserve for ourselves, our kids and grandkids.”
The third concern is the painkiller abuse and overdose which he somewhat blamed on the health-care system. He pointed out the importance of government intervention and participation of support groups.
Next is the need to eradicate polio once and for all. This is something that CDC has begun to work on since 1988. Though CDC made huge progress by reducing the affected by 90 percent, Frieden believes that not a single child must suffer from the disease.
Finally, the health threats from diseases from other countries should not be forgotten. The federal agency is working with many countries to be able to find a disease faster, stop its spread and disseminate information to the public.
