Stories


Expanding the Reach of HIV Diagnostics

1 in 8 people living with HIV in the United States is undiagnosed. Driven by COVID-19 lockdowns and closures, HIV self-testing increased over the past two years, and it has proven to be a cost-effective way to make HIV testing more accessible.



Bridging Critical Public Health Gaps

To assist health departments during COVID-19, the CDC Foundation, with support from CDC, created the Workforce/Vaccine Initiative, deploying professionals to fill critical roles in 95 jurisdictions around the country.


Mini-Grants Make a Major Difference in Local Communities

Neighborhood organizations and local health departments across the country are coming up with effective, innovative programs that are making a real difference in their local areas. And thanks to mini-grants from the CDC Foundation, they’re doing it with a comparatively modest amount of grant money and a rapid timeline to implement their ideas.


Providing Hope, Support and Connection in Atlanta

For over three decades, the Center for Black Women's Wellness has been a tireless advocate for Black women and their families in the metropolitan Atlanta area. They offer affordable health care and other services to support the physical, mental, emotional and financial health needs of the women they serve. During the COVID-19 pandemic, this unwavering support became a kind of lifeline of connection for many families.

Protecting Health in Haiti Amid Crisis

In addition to the rise of drug-resistant pathogens, environmental disasters and armed conflict represent some of the biggest ongoing threats to global health security. In recent years, the already fragile health systems of Haiti have been devastated by both.


Nothing For Us Without Us: How Connecticut is Rethinking Their Funding Systems

Connecticut, like many states across our country, has varied demographics with urban and rural areas and different priorities for health across their 20 health districts. All the state’s communities have one overarching challenge, though: public health funding. To address public health funding challenges head on, Connecticut explored new ways of bringing funders and the community together.


CDC Foundation Research Consortium Studies the Impact of Respiratory Infections on Patients, Hospital Systems and Public Health

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the CDC Foundation and partners launched the Severe Acute Respiratory Infections Preparedness (SARI-Prep) research consortium. The project was designed to create a network of leading scientists and researchers from varying fields of expertise who would observe the impact of severe acute respiratory infections on hospital systems and patient care, experiences and health outcomes.



With Mariachi, Murals and Poetry, Houston Comes Together for a Healthier Community

Despite the heat in Houston, there was a large and joyous group of neighbors, friends and families dancing around the park’s outdoor stage as the University of Houston’s mariachi ensemble, the Mariachi Pumas, performed a tribute to the music of pop star Selena. I was excited to join the crowd and enjoy this opening act of the final installment of Come Together Houston, a four-month long series of free public arts performances hosted by the University of Houston McGovern College of the Arts in collaboration with Houston Methodist Hospital.



A New Tool in the Toolkit: Dogs Help to Detect COVID-19

Dogs are known for a sense of smell so acute they have the ability to detect cancer, monitor diabetes and screen for an array of infectious diseases. Recently, several groups around the world have demonstrated that dogs are also able screen individuals for COVID-19 infections. Beginning in September 2021, the CDC Foundation partnered with the Association of Public Health Laboratories, Early Alert Canines and the California Department of Public Health to acquire and train two Labrador retrievers to detect COVID-19 infections in congregate settings, and are already applying their skills in school settings.


CDC Foundation Staff Support Vaccine Innovations

Health departments across the country, many with the aid of CDC Foundation Workforce and Vaccine Initiative staff and community partners, continue to develop innovative strategies to increase uptake and address relevant health equity issues in their jurisdictions.

Improving the Well-Being of Native Older Adults and their Caregivers

At some point in our lives, many of us will likely be a caregiver to someone we know with an illness, injury or disease that prevents self-sufficiency. Sometimes it only lasts a few days, but many take on this role for years. With American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) people ages 65 and older more pre-disposed to dementia than other racial and ethnic groups, including Alzheimer’s, this increases the likelihood of being a caregiver in tribal communities.

Healthier Communities through Inclusivity

Throughout the current pandemic it has become clear that racial and ethnic minority groups have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. To address the gaps, the CDC Foundation and the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at Morehouse School of Medicine created a Health Equity Task Force to monitor and assess the impact of COVID-19 on vulnerable populations.


On Stage and En Encena: Local Theater Educates with Bilingual Plays

What do wizards, wrestling and COVID-19 education have in common? Quite a bit, according to the Olympia Family Theater, an innovative nonprofit community theater in Washington State. The theater engages playwrights and performers in productions that can both entertain and inform audiences, with the goal of creating a stronger and healthier community through the arts.



World Malaria Day: Celebrating Monumental Progress in Saving Lives

In October 2021, WHO made an announcement the public health community had dreamed of for over a century and worked towards for decades: the recommendation of a malaria vaccine that could save tens of thousands of lives each year. On World Malaria Day, we celebrate this enormous achievement in malaria control and elimination.

A Career Spent in Service of Public Health

Dr. Gary R. Noble served in pivotal roles throughout the AIDS pandemic, spending 29 years at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and 10 years at Johnson & Johnson—demonstrating a dedication to public health that has its roots in his rural community-minded upbringing. Now he maintains an active retirement, supporting his family, the CDC Foundation and other important causes.

In Crisis Situations, Improved Information Gathering Can Save Lives

60% of the world’s maternal deaths and 45% of newborn deaths occur in areas affected by war, food insecurity or natural disasters. Unfortunately, countries in crisis often lack accurate data about maternal and newborn health. We're filling these gaps by strengthening data collection and helping countries like Cameroon end these tragic and preventable deaths.






Supporting American Indian Elders During COVID

From the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, tribal communities were among the most vulnerable. To address their needs, the CDC Foundation partnered with the Afya Foundation—though COVID forced a rapid rethinking of their usual approach.






Mobilizing the Sisterhood to Fight COVID-19

Sorority chapters around the country encourage a lifelong commitment to service and sisterhood, and for some—including Philadelphia chapters of Alpha Kappa Alpha and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority—those efforts have taken on a whole new dimension during the pandemic.


A Travel Epidemiologist Charts New Territory

Travel epidemiologist Karuna Mary Bollam plays an unusual role in the COVID-19 Corps: she works closely with CDC’s Division of Global Migration and Quarantine to make sure those who are under isolation for coronavirus don’t leave the state of Oregon by air or sea.







The Fab Five supporting Navajo Nation’s COVID-19 response

Five of the CDC Foundation's public health pros are playing a major supporting role in the Navajo Nation’s model efforts to mitigate COVID-19 and get the tribe vaccinated. Meet Nicole, Larissa, Nicholas, Tori and Uly, and learn about the incredible response efforts that have taken place and the work that still needs to be done.










Alaska Native Nurses Battle COVID and the Elements

Through rain, snow, sleet, windstorms and even unexpected visits from wildlife, a dedicated trio of COVID-19 Corps healthcare workers are battling the pandemic—and the elements—in their native Alaska to provide COVID testing to the population of Anchorage and beyond.











Arresting the Spread: Fighting COVID in Jails

With correctional facilities nationwide accounting for more than 80% of the largest COVID-19 outbreaks, the need for guidance was great—particularly in Detroit, one of the big cities where it hit early. Meet the groundbreaking partnership that formed in response.


Super Tracers Assemble in Pennsylvania

This tight-knit team of ten COVID-19 Corps members didn’t know each other before joining the CDC Foundation initiative—but now they’ve become known in Pennsylvania public-health circles as “The Super Tracers.”











Tackling the Opioid Overdose Epidemic

Across the United States today, more than two million people have an opioid use disorder. As drug overdoses continue to increase nationwide, fewer and fewer families are left untouched by an epidemic that claims 130 lives in the United States each day.



Evaluating a Unique Typhoid Vaccine in Zimbabwe

Though the burden has drastically decreased in most industrialized nations, typhoid fever remains a serious health risk in much of the world. Spread through contaminated food and water, an estimated 26 million cases of typhoid fever occur worldwide each year, causing approximately 215,000 deaths. In countries like Zimbabwe, where the disease remains endemic, typhoid poses a recurring threat, particularly in the crowded urban areas around the capital city, Harare.

Sickle Cell Research Makes an Impact in California

For the estimated 100,000 people in the United States who suffer from sickle cell disease, living with this potentially deadly blood disorder is a daily challenge. But in the fight against the disease, medical professionals have been hampered by a frustrating lack of data on how, when and where patients are accessing care.












3-D Innovations, Algorithms and the Science of Body Measurement

When working in the field, Dr. Karim Bougma is up early—some days rising at 3:00 a.m. to start his day. With a 3-D imaging device in hand, he joins a team each morning as they go house-to-house to collect body measurement data for children under five, which is being used to monitor and evaluate population, health and nutrition programs.

Hurricane Recovery Needs Won’t Stop When the Calendar Changes

When looking back on the top news stories of 2017, one that certainly rises to the top is the record-breaking Atlantic hurricane season. Who can forget the series of hurricanes in late August and September that wreaked destruction on portions of the continental United States and the U.S. territories of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Burkina Faso: Helping Secure the Globe from Outbreaks

Each day headlines highlight dangerous disease outbreaks that strike fear because of their capacity to rapidly infect populations across the globe. Through the Global Health Security Agenda, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is working with 31 countries to accelerate their ability to prevent, detect and respond to infectious disease threats. The CDC Foundation is supporting CDC's work with partners in the West African country of Burkina Faso to advance these Global Health Security efforts.

Investing in effective health management

Without strong public health management and efficient organizational performance, many important global health initiatives in low-resource countries fall short of their intended goals. How can this challenge be addressed?


CDC Lab was Important Outpost in Ebola War

With its yellow walls and simple tin roof, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (lab in Bo, Sierra Leone, would be easy to overlook. Although there were no indications that this tiny lab sat squarely on the front lines in the fight against Ebola, it was vital to efforts to turn back the epidemic in Sierra Leone.

Ebola on the frontlines

Early on a Sunday morning in Liberia, West Africa, a small group of CDC Foundation staff, along with representatives of eHealth Africa and the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, had the opportunity to see firsthand the challenges and successes that come with tracking down contacts of Ebola patients in Liberia.

500 Cities Project offers new data for health

Old Colony YMCA in Brockton, Massachusetts, recently discovered something startling: a single neighborhood more burdened by poor health such as asthma, high blood pressure and elevated cholesterol than surrounding areas. Most surprising, however, was that this particular area had a lower prevalence of unhealthy behaviors like binge drinking than other locations within Brockton.

Protecting Women from Zika in Puerto Rico

In 2016, Tashira, 22, of Puerto Rico got pregnant with her second child. Tashira didn’t plan to have another baby so soon, but she got pregnant when she ran out of birth control pills. During one summer visit to a health clinic in San Juan, Tashira disclosed her anxiety about the current Zika virus outbreak and the link between Zika infection during pregnancy and birth defects.