The fulfillment of CDC's vision of a safer world requires the sustained, coordinated, and complementary efforts of many individuals and organizations. Other important players include private citizens, health care providers, companies, and laboratories. A nonprofit organization, Rotary International, has made major contributions to polio eradication efforts. A Strategy for the 21st Century describes steps that we can take over the next 5 years to help create a world in which people are better protected from infectious diseases. The four goals are interdependent.
Surveillance systems monitor emerging infectious pathogens and outbreaks of disease.
A response is mounted when surveillance data or other information indicates a change in the incidence or distribution of an infectious disease, or when a new or variant strain of a pathogen has become a health threat. Through applied research , scientists answer questions about the etiology, transmission, diagnosis, prevention, and control of emerging infectious diseases. Research, surveillance, and response all depend on the public health infrastructure that supports, trains, and equips public health workers, and links them in national and global networks. Training the next generation of public health scientists is a crucial component of the public health infrastructure. All of CDC's efforts are ultimately directed at implementing the fourth goal, prevention and control, which receives increased emphasis in this plan.