ENCYCLOPEDIA OF Espionage, Intelligence, and Security Volume ...

CERNsuccess of other vaccination campaigns. These outcomesalso solidified the CDC’s reputation as a disease-monitoringcenter of excellence. The other event was a largeinfluenza outbreak in the U.S. Once again, a surveillancecampaign on the type of virus that was involved and itspattern of spread helped future efforts to develop effectivevaccines and inoculation programs.During the 1950s and 1960s, the CDC grew throughthe assumption of responsibility for programs that hadbeen previously handled by other government departmentsand agencies. Examples include the centers ofvenereal disease, tuberculosis, and immunization.Beginning in the 1960s, CDC assumed an increasinglyimportant role in the public awareness of infectious diseases.One important example occurred in 1961 when theinstitution took over the publication of the Mortality andMorbidity Weekly Report (MMWR). The MMWR publishesinformation on the number of deaths and cases of infectiousdisease from every state in the country each week.The availability of such detailed information has allowedthe progression of some emerging diseases such as AIDSto be charted.By the late 1960s, the CDC had become much morethan a center for the study and action against communicablediseases. These activities had moved CDC far beyondits original mandate as a communicable disease center. Inrecognition of the center’s changed role, its name waschanged in 1970 to the Center for Disease Control. Furtherexpansion led to a slight name change in 1981, to theCenters for Disease Control. Finally, as further expansiontook the CDC into disease prevention, in 1992 the organizationbecame the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Even so, for the sake of continuity the acronymCDC has been retained.These and other efforts have contributed to nationalsecurity through the preservation of public health. In morerecent times, accomplishments of significance have includedparticipation in the development of a smallpoxvaccine and inoculation program, and the identification ofthe agents of several diseases including Legionnaire’sdisease, toxic shock syndrome, hantavirus pulmonarysyndrome, and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome.In 1978, biosafety level 4 containment laboratory wasopened in the CDC Atlanta headquarters. Then as now,this is one of only a handful of level 4 labs in NorthAmerica. Other similar facilities are present in San Antonio,Texas, at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute ofInfectious Disease (USAMRIID) in Fort Detrick, Maryland,and in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It is only at thesefacilities that highly infectious and lethal viruses and bacteriacan be safely studied and treatments devised. AtCDC, for example, the Special Pathogens Branch studiesthe Ebola, Marburg, and Hantaviruses.In the present day, CDC provides a great deal ofinformation concerning naturally occurring infectious diseasesand, particularly since in the aftermath of the September11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S., informationon bioterrorist threats such as anthrax. The research anddisease surveillance expertise at CDC is being harnessed,along with other national laboratories and intelligencegathering organizations, to strengthen the United Statesfrom bioterrorist attacks.❚ FURTHER READING:PERIODICALS:Epidemiology Program Office, CDC. “CDC’s 50th Anniversary:History of CDC.” Morbidity and Mortality WeeklyReport no. 45 (1996): 525–30.ELECTRONIC:Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “About CDC.”November 2, 2002. (28 December 2002).Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “CDCTimeline.” (28 December 2002).SEE ALSOBiocontainment LaboratoriesNNSA (United States National Nuclear SecurityAdministration)Public Health Service (PHS), United States❚ LARRY GILMANCERNCERN, located along the French-Swiss border near theSwiss capital Geneva, is the world’s largest particle-physicslaboratory. (The acronym stands for Conseil Européennepour la Recherche Nucléaire, French for CERN’s originalname, the European Council for Nuclear Research; sinceOctober 1954, despite retention of the old acronym, CERN’sname has actually been Organisation Européenne pour laRecherche Nucléaire.) CERN was founded in 1954 andtoday is supported by a consortium of 20 European nationsand by a number of “observer states,” includingJapan and the U.S. Besides being responsible for manyfundamental discoveries in particle physics, primarilythrough the use of particle accelerators, CERN is thebirthplace of the World Wide Web.CERN is a non-military organization; Article II.1 of themultinational convention establishing the laboratory statesthat it “shall have no concern with work for military requirementsand the results of its experimental and theoreticalwork shall be published or otherwise made generallyavailable.” However, CERN is unavoidably relevant to170 Encyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence, and Security