Preventing Emerging Infectious Diseases: A Strategy for the 21st Century outlines new measures toward achieving emerging infectious disease prevention and control. The updated plan signals the second phase of the campaign launched in 1994 with the publication of Addressing Emerging Infectious Disease Threats: A Prevention Strategy for the United States, a collaborative effort of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under the leadership of the National Center for Infectious Diseases and institutions and agencies throughout the United States and abroad.

The objectives and activities in the updated plan are organized under the same four goals described in the 1994 publication: surveillance and response, applied research, infrastructure and training, and prevention and control. Nine specific priority program areas are outlined: antimicrobial resistance; foodborne and waterborne diseases; vector-borne and zoonotic diseases; diseases transmitted through blood transfusions or blood products; chronic diseases caused by infectious agents; vaccine development and use; diseases of people with impaired host defenses; diseases of pregnant women and newborns; and diseases of travelers, immigrants, and refugees.

Achieving the goals outlined in the updated plan will continue to require sustained and coordinated efforts of agencies and organizations, state and local health departments (surveillance of infectious diseases), academic centers and other federal agencies (research), health-care providers and health-care networks (guideline development and dissemination), international organizations (outbreak responses overseas), and other partners.

The executive summary of Preventing Emerging Infectious Diseases: A Strategy for the 21st Century will be released as a special issue of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report on September 10, 1998. An electronic version of the full document as well as information on how to order a print copy will be available shortly afterwards at http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/ncid.htm.

Update May 11, 2010: An electronic version of the full document is available at http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00054779.htm. You may download a PDF version of the report at http://www.cdc.gov/MMWR/PDF/rr/rr4715.pdf.

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