NCEZID Accomplishments 2013

Improving Public Health:

• Protecting public water systems and the public from Naegleria fowleri (brain-eating ameba) infections
• Eliminating healthcare-associated infections (HAIs)
• Sounding the alarm about the threat of antibiotic resistance
• Containing a deadly and unprecedented outbreak of fungal meningitis
• Revealing which foods cause foodborne illness
• Innovating solutions for sanitation in Kenya
• Improving refugee health
• Tracing a new virus to ticks
• Laying a new pipeline to rapidly identify infectious disease
• Identifying a new poxvirus
• Speeding up laboratory reporting

Responding to outbreaks:

• Michigan — CDC responded to an outbreak of Clostridium difficile (called C. difficile) infections
• Colorado — Outbreak of the deadly superbug CRE
• US (multistate) — Human rabies transmitted during organ transplantation
• US (multistate) — Listeria infections associated with contaminated cheese
• Uganda — Ebola hemorrhagic fever infection

Responding to global outbreaks:

• Puerto Rico, multiple countries worldwide — One of the largest ever outbreaks of dengue virus infections
• US and Mexico

What’s ahead for NCEZID in 2014:

• Advanced Molecular Detection (AMD)